Beirut: A year of Russian air strikes on areas outside government control in Syria have killed more than 9,000 people, displaced tens of thousands and caused wide destruction, an opposition monitoring group said on Friday.
On September 30 last year, Russia began an air campaign backing the ground forces of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, turning the balance of power in his favour in many areas — including the northern province of Aleppo and the suburbs of the capital Damascus.
Opposition activists have blamed Russia as being responsible for most of the recent air strikes against rebel-held neighbourhoods of east Aleppo city that killed more than 320 civilians in the past two weeks and demolished many buildings.
A Syrian opposition monitoring group that tracks Syria’s civil war said a year of Russian air strikes have killed 9,364 people in the war-torn country.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the dead include 3,804 civilians, including 906 children. The dead also include 2,746 members of Daesh and 2,814 from other rebel and militant groups, including Al Qaida’s affiliate in Syria.
Russia on Friday is marking one year since it launched its air campaign in Syria in support of Assad. In light of that, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a warning to Russians abroad about possible “provocations,” urging them to exercise caution.
Also on Friday, Syria’s military and the Observatory said government forces captured a hospital in the northern city of Aleppo a day after regaining control of a Palestinian refugee camp in the city.
