Russia confirms airstrikes on Syria’s Idlib

The Russian military confirms airstrikes were carried out on Syria’s last major rebel stronghold Idlib with warplanes targeting the “terrorist” Al-Nusra Front yesterday.

“Four planes of the Russian group at the Hmeimim airbase inflicted strikes by high-precision weapons on objects of the Al-Nusra Front terrorist group in the Idlib province,” the Russian military’s spokesman Igor Konashenkov says in a statement.

He says the strikes were conducted on September 4 “during the dark time of day,” without specifying if it was early morning or night time.

“The strike was conducted on terrorist stockpiles located outside residential areas, where unmanned aerial vehicles were stored, Konashenkov says.

A warehouse which stored portable air-defense systems and drone launch zones for attacks on Russia’s Hmeimim airbase and towns in provinces Aleppo and Hama were also targeted, he added.

Yesterday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that at least nine civilians, including five children from the same family, were killed in the Russian raids, while 10 more people were wounded.

— AFP