Six days of military escalation on Idlib and Aleppo: bombardment and battles leave 181 regime and Russian troops, Jihadis and rebels dead, while over 3,000 air and ground strikes kill and injure 175 civilians
Recent escalation in the regime and Russian military operations within the “de-escalation” zone has completed its consecutive sixth day. The recent 72 hours witnessed complete cessation of aerial operations by the regime jets and helicopters. However, the Russian jets came to fill this gap with their continued and intense bombardment on the area.
On the other hand, the situation on the ground turned upside down after the meeting held few days ago between the Turkish intelligence with factions’ commanders at the Syrian border with Iskenderun. During the meeting, the Turks informed the factions that all recent political solutions failed and that the factions had to focus on the military aspect.
Turkey provided its loyal fighters with the American TOW missiles. It became notable that the latest attacks were initiated by the factions in which they recovered positions captured recently by the regime forces, in addition to inflicting large number of casualties among the regime soldiers and loyalists.
Syrian Observatory activists documented more than 3,035 air and ground strikes targeted the southern, eastern and south-eastern countryside of Idlib and both western and southern countryside of Aleppo.
The air and ground strikes were distributed as follows:
- Russian warplanes: 229 raids at least
- Regime warplanes: over 105 raids
- Regime helicopters: 51 barrel bombs
- Regime ground forces: 2,650 rocket and artillery shells.
SOHR activists also documented during the same period, the killing of 35 civilians including eight children as well as the injury of 93 others.
The fatalities were:
- 20 civilians including three children and a civil defense member were killed in a massacre committed by regime warplanes after targeting Idlib city
- A man, his wife and their two children were killed in a massacre committed by Russian warplanes when they bombarded Bala village of Anjara area in western rural Aleppo
- Three child girls were killed in Russian raids on Kafr Ta’al village
- One child girl and one female were killed in Russian bombardment on Kafr Jum village
- Two children were killed in Russian aerial bombardment on Uwayjil village west of Aleppo
- One civilian was killed in air strikes by regime warplanes on Hass town in the southern countryside of Idlib.
Other ten civilians including a female and a child were killed, and 37 others were injured, due to shelling by jihadi groups on neighborhoods in the regime-controlled city of Aleppo.
The fierce battles and hysterical aerial and ground fire resulted in the killing of 91 regime government troops, and 68 fighters including 52 jihadis.
For their part, the factions could recover Abu Juraif and Tal Khatrah villages which the regime imposed its control over just after the ceasefire collapsed. Furthermore, the factions managed to capture Tal Musaytif village which came under the regime forces control before 18 months.
SOHR also documented the killing of 18 other jihadis in aerial Russian bombardment and regime ground forces fire on the western countryside of Aleppo.
Meanwhile, four Russian soldiers were killed in an attack by jihadi groups, on a position from which the Russians run and supervise the military operations in the eastern countryside of Idlib.