targets Archives

Russian Warplanes Strike Almost 200 Terrorist Targets in Syria in Two Days

February 24, 2016 By administrator

Russian jets carried out 187 airstrikes on terrorist targets in Syria in the course of 62 sorties during the past two days, the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said Wednesday. Areas where warring sides agreed to cease hostilities and start negotiations were not targeted, he emphasized.

The Russian Aerospace Forces continue to attack militant groups in Syria which are not included in the cessation of hostilities agreement and are designated as terrorist organizations by the UN, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.

“During the past two days, 187 targets in the provinces of Hama, Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, Aleppo and Homs were struck in the course of 62 sorties.”

A Su-34 bomber destroyed over 10 strongholds and neutralized more than 50 militants in the Hama province, he elaborated.

“The intensity of Russian airstrikes in Syria fell significantly in the past two days, especially in areas where local authorities and armed groups have agreed to cease hostilities and start negotiations. We are not targeting those areas at all,” Konashenkov said.

The spokesman emphasized that airstrikes are conducted only against militant groups designated as terrorist organization by the United Nations.

“The agreement between Russia and the US [on cessation of hostilities in Syria] does not apply to Daesh, al-Nusra Front and other militants, designated as terrorist organizations by the UN Security Council.”

On Monday, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that an agreement on cessation of hostilities between the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad and the armed opposition factions had been reached. The agreement will come into force on February 27.

Russia has been fighting terrorists in Syria since September 30 at President Assad’s request.

Saudi cities to become legitimate targets for Yemeni troops: Yemeni army says.

September 5, 2015 By administrator

Yemeni army forces (file photo)

The Saudi cities of Jeddah, Abha, and the capital Riyadh will turn into legitimate targets for the Yemeni forces in their retaliatory attacks against the kingdom, which is continuing military aggression against its impoverished southern neighbor, a spokesman for the Yemeni army says.

Brigadier General Sharaf Luqman made the remarks on Saturday, a day after attacks by Ansarullah fighters and their allied army units killed dozens of Saudi, Emirati, and Bahraini soldiers in Yemen’s Ma’rib province.

The Yemeni official also said the number of Emirati troopers killed in the raids goes beyond 75, contradicting the UAE’s official figure standing at 45.

The Emirati troops as well as five Bahraini soldiers were killed on Friday in an arms depot blast in al-Safer airport in Ma’rib, 250 kilometers (150 miles) east of the capital Sana’a, a source at the scene said. The Ansarullah fighters said the blast was caused by a rocket attack.

In a separate attack, at least 16 Saudi soldiers were killed in an ambush by Ansarullah fighters and their allied army units near the Mash’al base in Saudi Arabia’s southwestern Jizan region. Riyadh has confirmed 10 of the fatalities.

Early on Sunday, Saudi bomber aircraft pounded the Yemeni capital Sana’a several times.

On Saturday, Yemeni forces launched missile attacks at several targets including a military camp in Jizan.

Later in the day, Saudi warplanes targeted the camps of internally displaced Yemenis in the northwestern Sa’ada province, killing at least eight people including women and children.

Source: Presstv.com

Iraq, Deadly car bomb targets U.S. consulate in Iraq’s Erbil

April 17, 2015 By administrator

ERBIL | By Isabel Coles

Smoke rises from the site of a bomb attack in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, April 17, 2015.
Reuters/Stringer

(Reuters) – A car bombing at the entrance to the U.S. consulate in the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region killed at least one person and wounded five others on Friday the local mayor said.

The State Department said no U.S. personnel were killed in the blast that it said was caused by a “vehicle-borne improvised explosive device” that went off right outside the entrance to the heavily guarded compound.

Semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan is an important partner in a U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants who have seized swathes of Iraq.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

A Reuters witness heard the blast which was followed by brief gunfire. Such attacks are rare in Erbil, a haven of relative safety in a country torn apart by insurgency and sectarian strife where, in many areas, bombings are a daily occurrence.

“A car bomb exploded outside the entrance to the U.S. consulate,” Nihad Qoja, the mayor of Erbil’s city center, told Reuters. “It seems the consulate was the target.”

He said the bomber had killed one person and wounded five others. It was not immediately clear who had been killed.

The blast produced a plume of black smoke that rose high above the Ankawa district, a predominantly Christian neighborhood packed with cafes that is popular with foreigners.

BREAKING NEWS U.S. and Allies Hit ISIS Targets in Syria reports NYT

September 22, 2014 By administrator

NYT
The United States and allies launched airstrikes against Sunni militants in Syria early Tuesday, unleashing a torrent of cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs from the air and sea on the militants’ de facto capital of Raqqa, Syria, and along the porous Iraq border.
American fighter jets and armed Predator and Reaper drones, flying alongside warplanes from several Arab allies, struck a broad array of targets in territory controlled by the militants known as the Islamic State. American military officials said the targets included weapons supplies, depots, barracks and buildings the militants use for command and control. Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from United States Navy ships in the region.
The strikes represent a major turning point in President Obama’s war against the Islamic State and open up a risky new stage of the American military campaign. Until now, the administration has bombed Islamic State targets only in Iraq, and had suggested it would be weeks if not months before the start of a bombing campaign against Islamic State targets in Syria.
The strikes come 13 days after Mr. Obama announced in an address to the nation that he was authorizing an expansion of the military campaign against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/world/middleeast/us-and-allies-hit-isis-targets-in-syria.html?emc=edit_na_20140922