Residents ride motorcycles near smoke rising from what activists said was an air strike carried out by the Russian air force in the rebel-controlled area of Maaret al-Numan town in Syria’s Idlib province yesterday.
Russia said yesterday it was ready to provide air support for Western-backed moderate rebels battling both Islamist militants and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as Moscow presses on with its diplomatic offensive over the conflict.
Speaking after a surprise summit between Syria’s embattled leader and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin this week, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged moves towards presidential and parliamentary polls in the war-torn country.
Representatives of Syria’s Western-backed opposition sounded incredulous, saying Russia should first stop bombing moderate rebels and that talk of elections was premature.
On the ground, Syrian troops backed by Russian air strikes battled fighters from the Islamic State (IS) group in a bid to restore a key supply line to second city Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
At least 28 IS fighters and 21 troops and pro-regime militia have been killed in the battle for the road leading to the government-held part of Aleppo, it said.
The monitors also reported Russian strikes in northern Hama province and said six people, including three children, were killed in what was believed to be a Russian strike on the village of Al Barqun in Aleppo province.
Russia and the West have been at loggerheads over Assad’s fate, a major sticking point in efforts to solve a crisis that has killed more than 250,000 people since 2011 and sparked an exodus of around 4mn refugees.
Seeking to shake off months of Western isolation over the Ukraine conflict, Putin last month began air strikes in Syria and has since launched negotiations with the war’s key regional players, including Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
But Washington has accused Moscow of seeking to buttress Assad by bombing moderate rebels, and refused to share intelligence over Syria.
Analysts say Lavrov’s offer of support for the anti-Assad opposition in the fight against IS could point to a shift in the Kremlin’s position.
“We are ready to also support patriotic opposition, including the so-called Free Syrian Army, from the air,” Lavrov said in an interview with the Rossiya 1 television channel.
Russia has previously only used the words “patriotic” or “healthy” to describe groups backing Assad.
Moscow says it has struggled to identify areas controlled by moderate rebels and has urged the West to help build bridges.
The Russian government released the transcript of the interview after Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry agreed in Vienna on Friday to explore new ways of trying to reach a political settlement. Lavrov, who spoke to Kerry again yesterday, also said the huge influx of migrants to Europe—many of them Syrian refugees—had helped shift EU politicians’ thinking, which could potentially lead the way to fresh talks on Syria’s future.
“Of course, it’s necessary to prepare for both parliamentary and presidential polls,” Lavrov added.
Western-backed Syrian rebels rejected Russia’s offer of help under current circumstances.
“Russia is bombing the Free Syrian Army and now it wants to co-operate with us, while it remains committed to Assad?” said Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed Saoud, a spokesman for the Division 13 rebel group.
“We don’t understand Russia at all!”
But things could be different if Assad quits power, he suggested.
“In the event that Assad leaves, there is a transitional government, a ceasefire and the formation of a national army to serve its country, we will try to forget the pain in order to build our country.”
Samir Nashar, a member of the Syrian National Coalition, the opposition’s main political body, said the proposal of new elections was absurd and accused Moscow of trying “to circumvent the demands of the Syrian people for Assad’s departure”.
Syria last held presidential elections in June 2014, with Assad re-elected for a seven-year term with 88.7% of the vote.
The election was dismissed by the opposition and condemned internationally.
