Idlib (Syria News) Civilians were either killed or wounded, on Thursday, in air strikes carried out by Russian warplanes on Khan Sheikhon City, in southern Idlib.

Qasioun News reported that Russian warplanes conducted air strikes on the city of Khan Sheikhon, in southern Idlib, killing three civilians and wounding others.

Furthermore, Syrian regime warplanes carried out air strikes and dropped explosive barrels on the villages of Tariya and Tahtaya, in southern Idlib, causing material damage but no casualties were reported.

Syrian and Russian warplanes are intensifying their air strikes for the third day, where more than 140 air strike were conducted on the towns of Idlib and Hama.

Meanwhile, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and other opposition militias are carrying out military operations on the Syrian army locations, in northern Hama, and managed to capture several headquarters near the city of Maan. </s> BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian activists say Russian and Syrian aircraft have stepped up their assaults on the rebel-held province of Idlib, a day after air raids killed more than 60 people.

The activist-run Local Coordination Committees is reporting airstrikes on the towns of Binnish, Maarat Nasaan, and Saraqib, as well as the provincial capital, Idlib.

The network says the Monday morning airstrikes killed three children. It blamed the attacks on Russian aircraft.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported strikes on Idlib city. It says 288 civilians have been killed in the province since Oct. 20, when Syrian government and Russian aircraft intensified airstrikes.

The Syrian Civil Defense first responder group said 65 civilians were killed in Sunday airstrikes across the province, including attacks on two rural marketplaces that killed dozens. </s> The Russian Defense Ministry has denied reports of deaths of 150 civilians in Syria's Idlib as result of Russian airstrikes.Russia denies reports suggesting that 150 civilians died in Syria's Idlib as a result of Russian airstrikes, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Thursday.Konashenkov said that Russian planes did not carry out airstrikes in Syria's residential neighbourhoods , adding that they were focused on hardware, reserves and al-Nusra Front militants.According to Konashenkov, Russian Aerospace Forces' airstrikes in Syria's Idlib derailed an operation of al-Nusra Front, which was trying to rescue militants from encirclement in Hama.On Wednesday, Reuters reported citing opposition rescue workers that Russian and Syrian planes killed at least 150 civilians and injured dozens in in an over a week-long campaign in Idlib. </s> Al Qaeda-linked militants in Syria down a Russian warplane, killing its pilot after he ejects from the plane and lands on the ground in the embattled north-western province of Idlib.

Al Qaeda-linked militants in Syria have shot down a Russian warplane, killing its pilot after he ejected from the plane and landed on the ground in the embattled north-western province of Idlib.

The pilot resisted being captured and fired at the militants who then shot and killed him, according to one of the militants and Syrian monitors.

The Russian Defence Ministry confirmed the downing of the Sukhoi Su-25 ground attack plane and said the pilot was killed in fighting with "terrorists".

A report on the ministry's Zvezda TV said preliminary information indicated the plane was shot by a portable ground-to-air missile in an area under control of Al Qaeda's branch in Syria.

Video posted on social media appeared to show the plane being hit, while other video showed burning wreckage on the ground, with a red star on a wing.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the plane was downed on Saturday afternoon local time near the rebel-held town of Saraqeb, which Syrian troops have been trying to take under the cover of Russian airstrikes.

Monitoring groups say there have been dozens of Russian airstrikes in the area over the past 24 hours.

A Russian strike from an undisclosed high-precision weapon killed more than 30 militants in the area where the Russian plane was downed, TASS news agency quoted Russia's Defence Ministry as saying.

At least five civilians were killed in another bombing which residents blamed on Russian jets.

The UN says 100,000 civilians have been displaced from the area in just the past month.

Syria's state news agency SANA said Syrian troops captured a nearby village and hill, cutting links between Saraqeb and the rebel stronghold of Maarest al-Numan to the south.

Syrian Government forces and their allies launched a push into Idlib six weeks ago, inching closer to a key highway that connects Syria's two largest cities, Damascus and Aleppo.

Russia is a key ally of President Bashar al-Assad, and has been waging a military campaign on behalf of his forces since 2015.

Russia's Defence Ministry regularly says it targets only hardline Islamist militants in Syria.

Meanwhile, fighting raged on Saturday between Turkish troops and allied Syrian opposition fighters, and a Syrian Kurdish militia in the northern Syrian enclave of Afrin.

The Turkish military said two of its soldiers were killed in Syria and a third was killed on the Turkish side of the border in an attack by Syrian Kurdish militiamen.

Syria's civil war, now entering its eighth year, has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven more than 11 million from their homes. </s> BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the conflict in Syria (all times local):

The Russian Defense Ministry says a Su-33 fighter jet, based on the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, has crashed into the Mediterranean Sea after returning from a sortie over Syria.

The ministry says in a statement that was reported by Russian news agencies that "because of the failure of the arrester system's cable, the Su-33 fighter rolled off the deck" on Monday.

The pilot of the aircraft successfully ejected and was unharmed in the incident. The ministry added that Russian military operations over Syria will not be affected by the incident.

This is the second loss of an aircraft from Russia's only aircraft carrier since it arrived off Syria last month. The Defense Ministry said that a Mig-29 fighter crashed into the sea on Nov. 15 while attempting to land on the Admiral Kuznetsov.

Syrian activists say Russian and Syrian aircraft have stepped up their assaults on the rebel-held province of Idlib, a day after air raids killed more than 60 people.

The activist-run Local Coordination Committees is reporting airstrikes on the towns of Binnish, Maarat Nasaan, and Saraqib, as well as the provincial capital, Idlib.

The network says the Monday morning airstrikes killed three children. It blamed the attacks on Russian aircraft.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported strikes on Idlib city. It says 288 civilians have been killed in the province since Oct. 20, when Syrian government and Russian aircraft intensified airstrikes.

The Syrian Civil Defense first responder group said 65 civilians were killed in Sunday airstrikes across the province, including attacks on two rural marketplaces that killed dozens. </s> BEIRUT - Air strikes and government artillery killed at least 20 people, including 10 children, in the largely rebel-held Syrian province of Idlib on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Observatory, a Britain-based war monitor, said Russian or Syrian government warplanes pounded the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, killing seven children and two pregnant women.

Warplanes and government artillery also killed 11 people in the village of Baarbo in the southwest of the province, the monitor reported.

"The Russian Defence Ministry has denied information reported in multiple foreign media outlets about alleged strikes by the Russian Air Force in the region of Khan Sheikhoun near the city of Idlib," Russia's TASS news agency quoted a ministry spokesman as saying on Tuesday.

"Russian jets did not fly in the area on Nov. 8 and no missile strikes were carried out."

Syria's war pits President Bashar al-Assad, supported by Russian air power and Iranian-backed militias, against an array of mostly Sunni rebel groups, including some backed by Turkey, Gulf monarchies and the United States.

Idlib contains the largest populated area of Syria controlled by rebels - including nationalist groups under the banner of the Free Syrian Army and Islamist fighters including the former al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. (Reporting by Ellen Francis in Beirut and Jack Stubbs in Moscow; editing by Andrew Roche) </s> Airstrikes on a rebel-held city in Syria early Tuesday killed at least 15 people, wounded dozens more and demolished several buildings, in one of the deadliest attacks since a cease-fire went into effect last year, Syrian activists and medics said.

The airstrikes hit the city of Idlib, the capital of a northwestern province of the same name that is almost entirely controlled by Syrian rebels and al-Qaida-linked insurgents.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 26 people were killed, including 10 civilians — mostly women. The opposition-run Civil Defense in Idlib says 15 bodies were pulled from the rubble and that 30 people were taken for medical treatment. Conflicting casualty tolls are common in the chaotic aftermath of such attacks.

Opposition activists also reported airstrikes on several suburbs of the capital, Damascus.

The government and the opposition have repeatedly traded accusations of violating the cease-fire, which was brokered by Russia and Turkey and went into effect in December, shortly after the government recaptured the northern city of Aleppo.

The Observatory said it was not clear if the airstrikes were carried out by Syrian, Russian or the U.S.-led coalition that has been targeting the Islamic State group and al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria.

The Russian military denied that its warplanes have attacked Idlib. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said that Russian warplanes haven’t conducted a single strike on Idlib this year.

The United Nations on Tuesday called on all parties to the Syrian war to seek an end to the bloodshed.

We deplore the loss of civilian life there as we have in other parts of Syria as the conflict rages,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at U.N. headquarters in New York. “As we see continuing civilian deaths it should redouble everyone’s determination to reach a political agreement.”

Russia has waged an air campaign in Syria since September 2015, providing a crucial boost for Assad’s forces in battles with extremist groups as well as the mainstream opposition.

The airstrikes came a day after Syrian President Bashar Assad said the European Union should have no role in the reconstruction of Syria unless it changes its policy toward the country. He said European countries that support “terrorists” in Syria “cannot destroy and build at the same time.” Assad’s government views all those fighting against it as terrorists.

In the same interview, given to Belgian media on Monday, Assad said U.S. President Donald Trump’s vows to fight terrorism were “promising” but that it’s still too early to “expect anything” on the ground. He welcomed the possibility of increased cooperation between the U.S. and his close ally Russia, saying it would be “positive for the rest of the world, including Syria.”

When asked about the cease-fire, Assad said “it’s not dead, and it’s natural in every cease-fire anywhere in the world, in every war, in any conflict, to have these breaches.”

Syria’s conflict, which began with a 2011 uprising against the Assad family’s four-decade rule, has killed an estimated 300,000 people and destroyed much of the country. The U.N. has estimated that reconstruction will cost around $350 billion.

The headquarters of Fateh al-Sham Front and the surrounding neighborhood in Idlib city were battered by at least 10 strikes at dawn, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of sources on the ground for its reports.

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman initially said 10 civilians were killed, but after further verification, he said the victims included “16 civilians, most of them women and children.”

“The toll could rise because some people are trapped under the rubble and unaccounted for,” he said.

Abdel Rahman said the raids were probably carried out by Russian warplanes — allied with Syria’s government — or by a U.S.-backed air coalition.

But Russia quickly denied it had struck Idlib.

“Russian military planes did not carry out a single strike in Idlib yesterday, or this week, or even since the beginning of 2017,” the defense ministry in Moscow said in a statement.

“Any information on these strikes are well-known lies.”

Russia has waged a fierce bombing campaign in support of the Damascus regime since September 2015, a year after the U.S.-led coalition began its own strikes against jihadi groups.

Fateh al-Sham has come under increasing pressure in recent weeks in Idlib province, the only remaining opposition-held province in war-ravaged Syria.

Bombing raids against the group have escalated, including one U.S. strike in January that killed more than 100 fighters at a training camp in Idlib province.

On Tuesday, a Pentagon spokesman said U.S. forces targeted al-Qaida operatives “in two precision strikes” on Feb. 3 and 4.

“The Feb. 4 strike targeted Abu Hani al-Masri, a legacy al-Qaida terrorist with ties to the group’s senior leaders, including Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden,” Eric Pahon said.

“We are assessing the results of those strikes and will announce definitive results as soon as practicable.”

The U.S.-led coalition has mostly focused on Fateh al-Sham’s jihadi rival, the Islamic State group, but it has also hit operatives from other factions.

Rebel groups have held Idlib province since the spring of 2015, four years after the Syria conflict first broke out. </s> MOSCOW — A Russian fighter jet was shot down in a rebel-controlled area of Idlib Province in northern Syria on Saturday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said, adding that the pilot survived the initial attack by parachuting from the plane but was killed by members of a militia on the ground.

The downing of the jet occurred in one of the country’s so-called de-escalation zones established last year by Russia, Iran and Turkey, in an attempt to lessen the bloodshed in Syria’s long civil war.

The Russian Su-25 warplane was patrolling the Idlib area when it was struck by a missile, launched from an area controlled by rebels, the ministry said in a statement. The pilot has yet to be identified.

The rebel-held area where the plane was shot down, in the northwest of Idlib Province, is controlled by several different rebel factions, including the Free Syria Army, Islamist groups and Tahrir al-Sham, an Al Qaeda-affiliated alliance.

Videos taken at the scenes of the crash and released by local activists showed flames billowing from the crumpled debris of a plane, clearly identifiable as an Su-25, and showed the red star symbol used by the Russian Air Force.

Moaz al-Shami, a media activist who lives in Idlib Province and who regularly posts video footage from the area, appears in one of the videos and describes the fighters who downed the plane as “heroes,” avenging civilians killed in airstrikes by Russian jets.

Since President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia first ordered his forces to Syria, Russia has lost four warplanes, four helicopters and about 50 servicemen in the conflict.

In a later statement, the Russian Defense Ministry said that it used high-precision weapons to kill more than 30 rebel forces in the area where the attack on the Russian aircraft was launched. Russian authorities, along with Turkish forces who are responsible for the de-escalation zone, are working to retrieve the pilot’s body.

In December, Mr. Putin ordered the withdrawal of Russian troops from Syria, declaring their mission completed. However, some Russian warplanes have stayed at the Hmeimim air base, which became Russia’s permanent air force facility in Syria.

In Moscow, Russian lawmakers promised a thorough investigation of the crash.

“Politically, this is very important and will have far-reaching consequences,” Franz Klintsevich, a member of the Russian Federation Council told Interfax, a Russian news agency.

Others blamed the United States for supplying Syrian rebels with weapons capable of shooting down the warplane.

“We have warned that the Americans will deliver such equipment, and they cannot control it later,” Aleksei Chepa, a member of the State Duma, told Interfax, adding that concerns had been expressed before that the weapons could bring down military and civilian planes. </s> Last week, Russia reported a failed push by al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front out of Idlib Province into Syrian government territory in Hama. In the course of repelling them, Russia claimed some 850 Nusra fighters were slain.

What followed since then was an increase in airstrikes against Idlib Province territory by both Syrian and Russian warplanes. The opposition Civil Defense group is now reporting 152 civilians killed in the course of those strikes.

The accuracy of either of those figures is impossible to prove, and both the Russian military and the Civil Defense have a history of hard to believe high death tolls in incidents that no one else seems to have documented as being nearly so massive.

Still, airstrikes have been confirmed to escalate in Nusra-held parts of Idlib, and given that includes residential areas, it’s highly probable those strikes have meant substantial civilian deaths and injuries. As with so much of the war, however, true numbers may never be known.
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Russian and Syrian warplanes carry out airstrikes in southern Idlib, killing three civilians and wounding others.