Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate called for militants to attack Russia over its air strikes in Syria, as rockets hit Moscow’s Damascus embassy yesterday where demonstrators had gathered to back the intervention.
Israeli artillery also targeted Syrian army posts after two rockets fired from Syria hit the Israeli-occupied sector of the Golan Heights, Israel’s military said.
The developments came a day after US-led coalition forces air-dropped ammunition to the Syrian Arab Coalition (SAC) battling militants near the Islamic State’s northern stronghold of Raqa.
Photo: AFP
Abu Mohamed al-Jolani, head of Syria’s al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front, urged militants in the Caucasus to target Russians because of Moscow’s air campaign.
“If the Russian army kills the people of Syria, then kill their people. And if they kill our soldiers, then kill their soldiers. An eye for an eye,” al-Jolani said in a recording released late on Monday.
He pledged that Moscow’s air war, which began on Sept. 30, would have dire consequences.
“The war in Syria will make the Russians forget the horrors that they found in Afghanistan,” al-Jolani said. “They will be shattered, with God’s permission, on Syria’s doorstep.”
Russia has said its raids are targeting al-Nusra’s militant rivals IS and other “terrorist” groups.
Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov yesterday described the attack as an “act of terror” aimed at intimidating those who support Moscow’s bombing campaign in Syria.
“It is a clear act of terror meant to scare supporters of fighting terrorism,” Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.
Yesterday morning’s rocket attack on Moscow’s diplomatic compound in Damascus sparked panic among about 300 demonstrators expressing their support for Moscow’s air war.
Two rockets slammed into the complex as the demonstrators waved Russian flags and pictures of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On Monday, EU foreign ministers demanded Russia stop targeting non-militant rebels, while the UN’s peace envoy to Syria said he was heading to Moscow to promote a political end to the war.
US-led coalition forces parachuted in ammunition to rebels in Syria on Monday, stepping up their support for groups battling militants as regime troops fought their fiercest clashes in weeks,
US forces have carefully vetted the leader of the group, which includes up to 5,000 fighters, a Baghdad-based spokesman said, after heavy criticism of Washington’s previous program to train moderate rebels. The Pentagon had to scrap a US$500 million scheme to equip and instruct rebels after many failed the screening process.
“Coalition forces conducted an airdrop Sunday in northern Syria to resupply local counter-ISIL [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] ground forces as they conduct operations against ISIL,” US Central Command spokesman Colonel Patrick Ryder said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a US official said the drop included 50 tonnes of ammunition.
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