Opposition Activists Report Airstrikes in Northern Syria

Warplanes carried out Sunday air raids on two villages in northern Syria as Russia said a northern town held by a predominantly Kurdish militia came under fire from the Turkish side of the border.
Opposition Activists Report Airstrikes in Northern Syria
Destroyed buildings are seen in the old city of Homs, Syria, on Feb. 26, 2016. Some 1,200 rebels and civilians, many of them wounded and starving from a yearlong siege, withdrew from the last remaining strongholds in the ancient heart of Homs in May 2014, surrendering to President Bashar Assad, a bloodstained city once dubbed the “capital of the revolution.” (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
The Associated Press
2/28/2016
Updated:
2/28/2016

BEIRUT—Warplanes carried out Sunday air raids on two villages in northern Syria as Russia said a northern town held by a predominantly Kurdish militia came under fire from the Turkish side of the border.

Sunday’s air raids came on the second day of a cease-fire brokered by Russia and the U.S., the most ambitious effort yet to curb the violence of the country’s five-year civil war. The truce has been holding since it went into effect at midnight Friday despite accusations by both sides of violations.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the airstrikes hit the villages of Daret Azzeh and Qobtan al-Jabal. The group did not say whether the warplanes were Russian or Syrian.

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Meanwhile, the Russian military operating in Syria said it has information about an attack on the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad from Turkish territories with the use of large-caliber artillery and has asked the United States for an explanation.

Russia has set up a center for monitoring the truce at the Hemeimeem air base in Syria, where Russian warplanes are based.

On Saturday, members of ISIS attacked the border town of Tal Abyad and the nearby village of Suluk that were captured months ago by Kurdish fighters, according to a Syrian rebel official.

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In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the cease-fire aiming to reduce the violence in Syria is only being partially implemented.

Erdogan expressed hope that “today or tomorrow this cease-fire will be secured and calm prevails in Syria” after noting that it is only being adhered to “in about one-third” of Syrian territories.

Erdogan made the remarks at a news conference in Istanbul prior to embarking on a trip to Africa.

The Syrian conflict has killed 250,000 people, displaced half the country’s population and triggered one of the worst refugee crises since World War II.