Washington is to restart talks with Russia over avoiding accidents in Syrian airspace, the Pentagon announced on Friday, as Islamic State (IS) fighters advanced to the outskirts of Syria’s second city, Aleppo.
The two nations are conducting separate bombing campaigns, with Moscow saying on Friday — its 10th day of strikes — that its raids had killed hundreds of jihadists in just 24 hours.
Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said talks between the two countries would resume after Moscow replied to the US’ proposals aimed at ensuring Russian warplanes do not cross paths with drones and US-led coalition jets.
“Department leaders are reviewing the Russian response and talks are likely to take place as soon as this weekend,” Cook said.
The US on Friday also announced it would halt its troubled program to build up Syrian rebel units to fight the Islamic State group.
The Pentagon expressed alarm earlier this week after Moscow failed to quickly answer proposals made during initial talks, even as Russia launched cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea and repeatedly violated Turkish air space.
Russian General Staff deputy head Lieutenant General Igor Makushev told reporters that “Su-34M and Su-24SM warplanes hit 60 terrorist targets.”
He said Russia had bombed a command post in the Islamic State stronghold of Raqa, killing two senior commanders and about 200 fighters, according to intercepted radio communications.
Strikes on Aleppo killed “some 100 militants,” and other raids struck command posts and training camps in Latakia, Hama and Idlib, he said.
The Russian air war has provided cover for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s ground troops, who have lost swaths of territory to jihadists and rebel groups since 2011.
The coalition headed by Washington on Friday said it had conducted one airstrike in Aleppo and one on Raqa the previous day.
According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 16 Islamic State militants, including three child soldiers, were killed in French raids, which hit “a training camp” on the southern edges of Raqa.
Regardless of the Russian and coalition campaigns, Islamic State militants have reached their closest position yet to the city of Aleppo in northern Syria, a monitoring group reported.
“Dozens of combatants were killed on both sides” as Islamic State fighters drove out rebels from nearby localities as well as a military base, the observatory’s director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
The jihadists were about 10km from the northern edges of the city and 3km from pro-regime forces in the Sheikh Najjar industrial zone.
“IS has never been so close to the city of Aleppo, and this is its biggest advance towards” Syria’s pre-war commercial capital, Abdel Rahman said.
Control of Aleppo is divided between rebel groups in the east and government forces — bolstered by pro-regime militias — in the west.
The Islamic State group has not had a presence in the city, but boasted it had “reached the gates of Aleppo.”
Islamist rebels including the powerful Ahrar al-Sham group were able overnight to recapture a village from the Islamic State, the observatory said yesterday
The Britain-based monitor said clashes were ongoing for control of a second village captured by the Islamic State on Friday. Dozens of jihadists and rebel fighters were killed in Friday’s clashes.
The observatory had no immediate toll for the Islamic-rebel clashes overnight and into yesterday morning during which the rebels recaptured Tal Soussin and battled to retake Tal Qrah, a second village.
Elsewhere in Aleppo Province, the monitor said heavy clashes were underway between regime forces and Islamic State fighters in the area around Kweyris military airport, which is held by the army, but besieged by jihadists.
The observatory said soldiers and pro-regime militiamen were attacking the jihadist group in several villages around the base in a bid to break the siege.
The observatory yesterday said that Russian planes had carried out several strikes overnight in Latakia, Hama and Idlib provinces, which have been key targets of their strikes, despite limited Islamic State presence.
Syrian state television reported that Syrian planes had carried out strikes in Hama province yesterday.
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