BEIRUT — Syrian government and Russian airstrikes killed at least 46 people in a besieged town outside of Damascus on Friday, while Turkish shelling and attacks on a Kurdish-held town in northern Syria left at least 22 dead there, monitors and officials said.
President Bashar al-Assad claimed Western powers are “becoming much weaker” in Syria, in a confident interview published in The Sunday Times.
Amnesty International has released a new report detailing how Russia is killing hundreds of innocents in its bombings of heavily-populated areas in Syria.
The Free Syrian Army (FSA), which includes fighters trained by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has reportedly been decimated by widespread desertions.
Syrian civilians have accused the Russian military of dropping “cluster bombs” while supporting the Bashar al-Assad regime’s offensive in northern Syria’s Aleppo province.
Almost four out of every five declared targets of Russian airstrikes in Syria are located in areas not held by the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), according to an analysis of Russian Defense Ministry data by Reuters.
Iranian troops, allied Hezbollah fighters, and Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s army have reportedly joined forces to launch a ground offensive, backed by Russian airstrikes, to seize key areas from rebels in Syria.
