According to activists, between four and 10 people were killed in the strikes on Aleppo, raising concerns of a return to daily deadly violence in what is Syria’s largest city.
The offensive began hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump discussed Syria over the phone and agreed on the need to combine efforts in the fight against what the Kremlin called their No. 1 enemy—“international terrorism and extremism.”
The Obama administration has been trying for months to negotiate a cease-fire in Aleppo, a city that has become the epicenter of the war between President Bashar Assad and rebels fighting to topple him, some of whom receive U.S. aid. From the militants’ side, al-Qaida’s Syrian affiliate is fighting alongside the rebels, but the ISIS terrorist group has no presence in Aleppo city.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a meeting with Putin on Tuesday that the operation involves the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, which made a much-publicized trip to Syria’s shores last month. He said Russian warplanes will target ammunition depots, training camps and armaments factories in the rebel-held province of Idlib and the central province of Homs. He did not immediately mention Aleppo.
Meanwhile, Syrian activists reported strikes in all three places—Idlib, Homs and Aleppo.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said missiles fired from Russian warships in the Mediterranean struck areas in Aleppo province and on the eastern edge of nearby Idlib. The Observatory’s chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said the areas hit with missiles are strongholds of jihadi groups, including the al-Qaida affiliate known as Fatah al-Sham Front.
