Opposition activists said Syrian government helicopter gunships struck a suburb of the capital, Damascus, a day after airstrikes on nearby areas killed at least 45 people.
Two activist groups — the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees (LCC) — said yesterday’s strikes targeted the southwestern suburb of Daraya.
The attacks come after government airstrikes and bombardment on Sunday of several eastern Damascus suburbs that killed at least 45, the Observatory said. The LCC said 49 were killed in strikes in the Douma, Saqba and Arbeen suburbs.
Syria’s state-run news agency and residents said that Sunday’s airstrikes followed volleys of mortar shells fired into Damascus by rebels in the area that had killed three people, including a child, and wounded 33.
In Moscow, Russian General Staff head General Valery Gerasimov yesterday was quoted as saying that Russia’s air force is conducting dozens of airstrikes in Syria daily to support the Free Syrian Army fighting alongside government troops against Islamic State militants.
The number of Free Syrian Army fighters now advancing in the provinces of Homs, Hama, Aleppo and Raqqa now exceeds 5,000, Russian news agencies quoted Gerasimov as telling a meeting with foreign military attaches accredited in Russia.
“The number of these Free Syrian Army units is rising all the time,” Gerasimov said.
“Only to support them, Russia’s aviation is conducting daily 30 to 40 strikes. They are also provided with weapons, ammunition and material support,” he said.
The Turkish Ministry of Foreign also criticized Russia’s military intervention in Syria, saying it was aimed at propping up the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, not combating the Islamic State.
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