(Reuters) – Russia carried out precision strikes on several targets near the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib, Rear Admiral Oleg Gurinov, head of the Russian Reconciliation Centre for Syria, was quoted as telling Interfax news agency on Wednesday.
According to Gurinov, the strikes were meant as a response to “militants attacking targets in government-controlled Syrian territory with the use of unmanned aerial vehicles.”
Last week witnesses and rescuers said that Russian jets bombed villages and towns near Idlib, killing at least nine civilians and wounding dozens in a major flare-up of violence in the country’s last opposition stronghold.
Gurinov said on Wednesday that as a result of the strikes a control point, a warehouse with weapons and ammunition were destroyed, and 18 insurgents were killed.
During past outbreaks of fighting, Damascus and Russia have said they only target insurgent groups and deny indiscriminate attacks on civilians.
(Reporting by Maxim Rodionov; Editing by Sandra Maler)
