BEIRUT: The Russian military says two of its ships have launched cruise missiles at targets in Syria from the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
Russia’s Defense Ministry says the Serpukhov and the Zeleny Dol corvettes launched three long-range Kalibr cruise missiles on Friday at Syria’s Al-Qaeda branch, formerly known as the Nusra Front. The ministry says the missiles destroyed a command facility and a terror camp near the town of Daret Azzeh, along with a mine-making facility and a weapons facility in the province of Aleppo.
Russian warships in the past have launched cruise missiles at targets in Syria from both the Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean, a show of the navy’s long-range precision strike capability.
The cruise missile strikes have added an extra punch to the aerial campaign Russia has conducted since September in support of President Bashar Assad’s military.
Residents of the northeastern Syrian city of Hassakeh took advantage on Friday of a lull in the fighting between Kurdish forces and Syrian government troops to flee to safer areas nearby, after fighting intensified the previous day with government warplanes bombing Kurdish-controlled positions in the city for the first time, activists and others said.
Shortly afterward, clashes broke out anew, a Kurdish official said. An activist group said Syrian government warplanes launched new air raids on areas controlled by Kurdish fighters on Friday. Kurdish official did not immediately respond for questions about the air raids.
The fighting between the Kurdish troops and government forces could add a new dimension to the country’s deadly war, now in its sixth year, by potentially opening a new front in Syria.
The area around Hassakeh had witnessed battles between the two sides in the past but this week’s violence has been among the worst since Kurdish fighters took control of wide, predominantly Kurdish areas in northern Syria in 2012.
Russian missiles fired from sea targets Syria
Russian missiles fired from sea targets Syria
