Fierce clashes kill 47 in Syria’s Idlib: NGO

By AFP
Beirut

Fierce clashes have killed at least 21 rebel fighters and 26 regime troops in less than two days in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, a watchdog said on Thursday.

"Army troops and rebel fighters loyal to Al-Nusra Front, Ahrar al-Sham and the Dawud brigade are fighting fierce battles" at two checkpoints seized by rebels on Wednesday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"The fighting has killed at least 21 rebels, including 12 (non-Syrian) Arab fighters, among them an Al-Nusra Front commander," said the Britain-based monitoring group.
The violence also killed "at least 26 regime troops", it added.

Large swathes of Idlib province, near the border with Turkey, have slipped out of army control and into rebel hands.

Loyalists of Al-Nusra Front, which the United States lists as a "terrorist" organization, and which is not part of the mainstream rebel Free Syrian Army, often fight some of the toughest battles in the area.

Elsewhere in the country, clashes also erupted on the southern outskirts of the Syrian capital as army tanks pounded the area, monitors said.

"Regime tanks pounded the towns of Deir al-Asafeer, Daraya and Moadamiyet al-Sham," said the Observatory, which relies on a network of activists, doctors and lawyers for its reporting.

While clashes raged in the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmuk and in Tadamun district early on Thursday, the army shelled the nearby Al-Hajar al-Aswad neighbourhood later in the day.

The army fired missiles at the rebel-held district of Khaldiyeh in Homs, more than six months into a suffocating siege of opposition districts in the central city, it said.

It also shelled the centre of Homs city and the district of Jobar on Thursday, while pounding the rebel-held nearby town of Rastan.

Thursday's violence came a day after at least 139 people were killed in violence across Syria, among them 51 civilians, 46 rebel fighters and 42 soldiers, according to the Observatory.

On Thursday, at least 37 people were killed in the country, according to a preliminary count.

The United Nations says a total of more than 60,000 people have died in the country's 22-month conflict.

Comments

Why States Still Use Barrel Bombs

Smoke ascends after a Syrian military helicopter allegedly dropped a barrel bomb over the city of Daraya on Jan. 31.(FADI DIRANI/AFP/Getty Images) Summary Barrel bombs are not especially effective weapons. They are often poorly constructed; they fail to detonate more often than other devices constructed for a similar purpose; and their lack of precision means they can have a disproportionate effect on civilian populations. However, combatants continue to use barrel bombs in conflicts, including in recent and ongoing conflicts in Africa and the Middle East, and they are ideally suited to the requirements of resource-poor states. Analysis Barrel bombs are improvised devices that contain explosive filling and shrapnel packed into a container, often in a cylindrical shape such as a barrel. The devices continue to be dropped on towns all over Syria . Indeed, there have been several documented cases of their use in Iraq over the past months, and residents of the city of Mosul, which was re

Russia Looks East for New Oil Markets

Click to Enlarge In the final years of the Soviet Union, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev began orienting his foreign policy toward Asia in response to a rising Japan. Putin has also piloted a much-touted pivot to Asia, coinciding with renewed U.S. interest in the area. A good expression of intent was Russia's hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in 2012 in Vladivostok, near Russia's borders with China and North Korea. Although its efforts in Asia have been limited by more direct interests in Russia's periphery and in Europe, Moscow recently has been able to look more to the east. Part of this renewed interest involves finding new export markets for Russian hydrocarbons. Russia's economy relies on energy exports, particularly crude oil and natural gas exported via pipeline to the West. However, Western Europe is diversifying its energy sources as new supplies come online out of a desire to reduce its dependence on Russian energy supplies . This has

LONDON POLICE INDIRECTLY ENCOURAGE CRIMINALS TO ATTACK RUSSIAN DIPLOMATIC PROPERTY

ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE A few days ago an unknown perpetrator trespassed on the territory of the Russian Trade Delegation in London, causing damage to the property and the vehicles belonging to the trade delegation , Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during the September 12 press briefing. The diplomat revealed the response by the London police was discouraging. Police told that the case does not have any prospects and is likely to be closed. This was made despite the fact that the British law enforcement was provided with video surveillance tapes and detailed information shedding light on the incident. By this byehavior, British law inforcements indirectly encourage criminals to continue attacks on Russian diplomatic property in the UK. Zakharova’s statement on “Trespassing on the Russian Trade Mission premises in London” ( source ): During our briefings, we have repeatedly discussed compliance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, specif

ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Search This Blog