Syria War Monitor Says At Least 13 Dead in Russian Air Strikes in Aleppo, Idlib

A Syria war monitor said strikes by Damascus ally Russia killed eight civilians on Sunday in Idlib, a bastion of rebels who have launched a major offensive against government forces.
“Russian air strikes on Sunday targeted one of the camps for displaced people” in the city of Idlib, “killing eight civilians including two children and a woman, and wounding more than 50 civilians,” the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
In Syria’s second city Aleppo, the monitor said Russian air strikes near Aleppo university killed at least five people.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights’s chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that “four Russian air strikes targeted the square near Aleppo university, killing at least five people,” without saying whether they were civilians or fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and allied factions.
The Russian air strikes on parts of Aleppo are the first since 2016.
One resident, who asked not to be identified due to safety concerns, told AFP that like most locals, “we are holed up at home.”
The rebels “are trying to put on a kind face and reassure the population. They forced the bakeries to work through the night, and distributed free bread at intersections today,” the resident added.
Aaron Stein, president of the U.S.-based Foreign Policy Research Institute, said “Russia’s presence has thinned out considerably and quick reaction air strikes have limited utility.”
He called the rebel advance “a reminder of how weak the regime is.”
Government forces lost control of Aleppo on Sunday for the first time since the country’s civil conflict began, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, after a lightning offensive dealt a severe blow to President Bashar al-Assad.
An Islamist-dominated rebel alliance launched its assault on forces of the Iranian- and Russian-backed government on Wednesday, the same day a fragile ceasefire took effect in neighboring Lebanon between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah after two months of all-out war.
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