Russia has bombed the Islamic State group in the heaviest strikes in eastern Syria since the war began, as its military maneuvers in the Mediterranean forced Lebanon to reroute flights.
Meanwhile, the UN passed a motion calling for action against the Islamic State, a week after a series of shootings and bombings in Paris left 130 people dead, sparking international condemnation and fears of similar attacks elsewhere in Europe.
Russian and Syrian warplanes on Friday carried out more than 70 airstrikes in the eastern Deir ez-Zor Governorate, killing at least 36 people including 10 children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Photo: Reuters
The Britain-based group said the raids hit several cities and towns as well as three oilfields, in the heaviest bombardment there since the conflict began in March 2011.
Most of the province, including large parts of its capital, is held by the Islamic State.
The regime still controls the military airport and several smaller areas.
Fighting raged on Saturday between Islamic State and regime forces around the airport, a day after clashes killed 30 people, 22 of them militants, according to the observatory.
Russia began its bombing campaign in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sept. 30, and pledged to step up the airstrikes after the Islamic State claimed that a bomb downed a Russian passenger jet over Egypt last month, killing all 224 people on board.
On Friday, Russia said it had fired cruise missiles from warships in the Caspian Sea and claimed to have killed 600 fighters in recent strikes.
The observatory said Russian strikes have killed more than 1,300 people since they began, a third of them civilians.
It says 381 Islamic State fighters have been killed, along with 547 rebels from other groups, including al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front.
Of the 403 civilians killed, 97 were children.
Russia’s military involvement in Syria has stirred tensions with Turkey, which backs the uprising against al-Assad and has accused Moscow of failing to respect its border and airspace in the campaign.
The state-run Anatolia news agency on Saturday reported that Syrian Turkmen rebels seized the villages of Harjaleh and Dalha in the northern Aleppo Governorate near the Turkish border from the Islamic State.
It said 70 extremists were killed in the battle for the villages, which the Turkmen captured with air support from US and Turkish warplanes.
Turkish officials have said a major air operation with the US against the Islamic State was planned, with Turkmen forces fighting on the ground.
They said the aim is to clear extremists from a 98km stretch of Syria’s northern border with Turkey.
In other violence, aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres on Saturday said that bombardment of areas in Eastern Ghouta, where it provides assistance, had killed eight people over the previous two days.
On Saturday, flights in and out of Lebanon were rerouted and some airlines canceled services after Moscow requested they avoid an area over the eastern Mediterranean.
Lebanese Minister of Public Works and Transport Ghazi Zeaiter said Moscow asked “that planes leaving Beirut airport towards the west avoid overflying an area in Mediterranean territorial waters because of maneuvers on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.”
A Lebanese airport official said departing flights would be directed south over Sidon and Sarafand to “keep them away from the perimeter of the maneuvers.”
National carrier Middle East Airlines said most of its flights would be on schedule, but “some flights to the [Persian] Gulf and the Middle East region might take [a] longer time due to a slight change in airways.”
Kuwait Airways said it was suspending its Beirut flights “as a precautionary measure,” but most other flights were arriving and leaving normally.
Turkey’s Dogan news agency said two Turkish Airlines services to Beirut were canceled on Friday night for “security reasons,” but its Saturday flights were operating normally.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution on Friday authorizing countries to “take all necessary measures” to fight the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
The resolution, drafted by France, does not provide a legal basis for military action, but urges countries to coordinate their efforts to prevent “terrorist attacks.”
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