Syrian and Iranian regime forces backed by Russian airstrikes began a new offensive Thursday aimed at breaking rebel control of a crucial highway between two major cities, according to Syrian state media and anti-government activists, New York Times reported on October 16, 2015.
Many of the 33 airstrikes Russia said it had carried out in Syria in the last 24 hours hit rebel-controlled towns between Homs and Hama. Residents of the area reported heavy bombardment, and mosques broadcast warnings to civilians to take cover. Anti-government activists said dozens of people were killed.
Russia’s Defense Ministry announced on Thursday that it had established a hotline with the Israeli military to avoid clashes in the sky during these operations. On Wednesday, representatives of both sides used the hotline to inform each other about their plans, the ministry said in a statement.
A similar attempt to coordinate with the US Air Force has yet to be concluded. Russia angered Turkey, a NATO member, in early October after its fighter jets violated Turkey’s airspace.
Thursday’s strikes were the latest attempt by the Syrian government and its allies to turn the tide on rebels who have seized parts of the country’s northwest and are now within striking distance of communities that remain loyal to President Bashar Assad. Russia said its strikes hit a mobile surface-to-air system that rebels had captured, a mine factory, and an artillery battery, among other targets.
Assad’s forces, which have lost control of more than two-thirds of Syria’s territory and suffer from grave manpower shortages, have received a boost since Russian jets began bombing rebel positions Sept. 30, adding a new, complicating factor to the civil war, now in its fifth year.
Syria’s other major foreign backer, Iran, has stepped up aid to Assad. An official from the alliance backing Assad, which includes Russia, Iran, and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, said Thursday that hundreds of Iranian operatives were on the ground in central Syria assisting his forces.
Underlining Syria’s close ties with Iran, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of a national security and foreign policy committee in the Iranian Parliament, told reporters in Damascus, the Syrian capital, Thursday his country fully supported the Syrian government, according to the Syrian state news agency, SANA.
He did not mention the presence of Iranian troops, saying they would be sent only in response to a Syrian government request.
The 33 sorties Russia conducted in Syria in the last 24 hours were down from 88 two days ago, the Russian Defense Ministry statement said. Russia is decreasing the number of airstrikes because battle lines are shifting in the wake of ground operations by the Syrian army, the ministry said.
Rebels are retreating, trying to regroup in new areas and adjust their ammunition supply chains, the statement said.