Moscow condemned “foreign forces” for seeking to escalate violence in Syria, despite reports from Ukrainian military intelligence Russia he would send mercenaries to Damascus to support the tired allies.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova blamed outside activists for instigating the latest wave of insurgent offensives after Islamist militants spearheaded by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took control of the city of Aleppo, sparking clashes between the authorities.
Zakharova insisted on Moscow’s support against the attack on Damascus, however delivers Russian ships began to move from the naval base in Tartu. Military forces spearheaded by HTS are engaged in fierce fighting with the Syrian army for 50 miles outside the provincial capital of Hama.
The Ministry of Defense in Damascus said that more reinforcements were sent to Hama city to strengthen the army on the frontlines, as the insurgents in the Hama region northwest of the city asked to increase the control, as the second front pushed the sound towards Hama.
It was also fought in the east of Syriawhere forces loyal to Damascus through Iranian and Iranian-backed militias are fighting Arab-majority rebel militias from the city of Deir Ezzor. The Pentagon said it had destroyed missile launchers, a tank and missiles that presented a “clear and imminent” threat to US and support forces at the Euphrates River, the second such pre-emptive strike in the area in less than a week.
the president of Syria; Bashar al-Assadwith the support of Moscow and Tehran as well as Iranian-backed Iraqi militias to maintain control of the country’s fractured government, which quickly inspired a proxy war following a popular uprising against his rule in 2011.
The sudden rise of a swath of territory in the northwest, which Zakharova described as “the most daring act,” marked the biggest challenge to the Assad regime in years, and for the first time in a decade of Syria’s civil war, the entire city of Aleppo appears to be under full opposition control.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR) said it thought the withdrawals of Russian troops from Syria had been suspended while they stayed among Russian military personnel fighting in Syria because of the surprise advance of the invasion. Both the Syrian army and the Russian back-up forces suffered “significant losses”, including what they said was a “close” recovery from their positions, as the forces left behind weapons and military equipment.
Moscow will bolster its forces in Syria using private military companies it expects to come to Syria, according to UR. He said these forces would likely be drawn from Russia’s Africa Corps, a mercenary force that is a stripped-down version of Wagner’s state militia group.
The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, is expected to meet with his counterparts from Iran and Turkey in Qatar in the coming days for urgent consultations on Syria. Ankara has taken on a rebel group in north-western Syria, while President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told Russian leader Vladimir Putin in a phone call to Damascus to commit to political consultations to end the civil war.
He added that Turkey is “doing its best to keep calm in Syria.”
According to a Kremlin statement, Putin “raised the urgent need” to stop the insurgency, urging Ankara to play a role in what it said was Damascus’ efforts to “restore stability and constitutional order throughout the region.”
The head of Syria’s civil defense rescue service, known as the White Helmets, told the UN security council that Russian airstrike in the rebel-held stronghold of Idlib earlier this week sent four hospitals into the city out of service.
“When the military government board changed, brutal attacks broke out by the Syrian government, Russia, and Iranian militants across the border into Syria, especially in areas outside their control in north-western Syria,” he said. The White Helmets responded to 275 attacks, which killed 100 civilians and wounded 360, he added.