The Kremlin yesterday rebuffed criticism from US President Donald Trump of Russian and Syrian government military action in Syria’s Idlib Province, saying it was justified.
Trump on Sunday urged Russia and Syrian government forces to stop bombing Idlib, following a Kremlin statement on Friday that signaled that Moscow would continue to back a month-long Syrian government offensive there.
“Hearing word that Russia, Syria and, to a lesser extent, Iran, are bombing the hell out of Idlib Province in Syria, and indiscriminately killing many innocent civilians. The World is watching this butchery. What is the purpose, what will it get you? STOP!” he said on Twitter.
Photo: AFP
Asked about Trump’s criticism, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that militants were using Idlib as a base to launch attacks against civilian and Moscow’s troops.
“There is a fairly large buildup of terrorists and fighters in Idlib,” Peskov said.
“Terrorist fire in Idlib is of course unacceptable,” he added. “Measures are being taken to neutralise such firing positions.”
He said Russia and Turkey were coordinating their positions over the situation.
Meanwhile, Israel on Sunday launched a second round of strikes against Syria in 24 hours.
Syria accused Israel of targeting an airbase in Homs Province, reportedly killing five people, just hours after carrying out retaliatory attacks on military and intelligence posts south of Damascus, killing 10.
“Our air defenses thwarted an Israeli aggression and destroyed two of the rockets that targeted the T-4 airbase,” a military source told state-run Syrian Arab News Agency on Sunday evening.
The remaining rockets “killed one soldier, wounded two others, and damaged an arms warehouse,” the source added.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported five killed, including one Syrian soldier, adding that a rocket warehouse was destroyed.
Iranian fighters and Hezbollah paramilitary forces are also stationed at the airbase, the Observatory said.
Israel has said it is determined to prevent Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria.
Additional reporting by AFP
AFGHAN CHILD: A court battle is ongoing over if the toddler can stay with Joshua Mast and his wife, who wanted ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ for her Major Joshua Mast, a US Marine whose adoption of an Afghan war orphan has spurred a years-long legal battle, is to remain on active duty after a three-member panel of Marines on Tuesday found that while he acted in a way unbecoming of an officer to bring home the baby girl, it did not warrant his separation from the military. Lawyers for the Marine Corps argued that Mast abused his position, disregarded orders of his superiors, mishandled classified information and improperly used a government computer in his fight over the child who was found orphaned on the battlefield in rural Afghanistan
EYEING THE US ELECTION: Analysts say that Pyongyang would likely leverage its enlarged nuclear arsenal for concessions after a new US administration is inaugurated North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned again that he could use nuclear weapons in potential conflicts with South Korea and the US, as he accused them of provoking North Korea and raising animosities on the Korean Peninsula, state media reported yesterday. Kim has issued threats to use nuclear weapons pre-emptively numerous times, but his latest warning came as experts said that North Korea could ramp up hostilities ahead of next month’s US presidential election. In a Monday speech at a university named after him, the Kim Jong-un National Defense University, he said that North Korea “will without hesitation use all its attack
RUSSIAN INPUT: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called Washington’s actions in Asia ‘destructive,’ accusing it of being the reason for the ‘militarization’ of Japan The US is concerned about China’s “increasingly dangerous and unlawful” activities in the disputed South China Sea, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ASEAN leaders yesterday during an annual summit, and pledged that Washington would continue to uphold freedom of navigation in the region. The 10-member ASEAN meeting with Blinken followed a series of confrontations at sea between China and ASEAN members Philippines and Vietnam. “We are very concerned about China’s increasingly dangerous and unlawful activities in the South China Sea which have injured people, harm vessels from ASEAN nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolutions of disputes,” said Blinken, who
STOPOVERS: As organized crime groups in Asia and the Americas move drugs via places such as Tonga, methamphetamine use has reached levels called ‘epidemic’ A surge of drugs is engulfing the South Pacific as cartels and triads use far-flung island nations to channel narcotics across the globe, top police and UN officials told reporters. Pacific island nations such as Fiji and Tonga sit at the crossroads of largely unpatrolled ocean trafficking routes used to shift cocaine from Latin America, and methamphetamine and opioids from Asia. This illicit cargo is increasingly spilling over into local hands, feeding drug addiction in communities where serious crime had been rare. “We’re a victim of our geographical location. An ideal transit point for vessels crossing the Pacific,” Tonga Police Commissioner Shane McLennan
RSS