Off the wire
• Profile: Greek conservative leader Vangelis Meimarakis  • FM spokesman: China opposes any challenge over South China Sea sovereignty  • News Analysis: Carly Fiorina comes out as serious candidate after scoring big in Republican debate  • China computer congress to emphasize internet innovation  • China, France hold high-level economic, financial dialogue  • Profile: Greek centrist River party leader Stavros Theodorakis  • Indian PM takes dig at main opposition over poverty eradication  • Singapore stocks close 0.56 pct lower  • China Voice: Is Japan bound up to battle chariot?  • Profile: Greek anti-bailout Popular Unity party leader Panagiotis Lafazanis  
You are here: 　 Home

Syrian warplanes launch 25 airstrikes on IS-held Palmyra city

Xinhua, September 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Syrian air force on Friday carried out as many as 25 airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) positions in the ancient city of Palmyra in central Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Several people were wounded as a result of the heavy airstrikes, which came just a day after the Syrian war jets heavily struck the IS positions in the northern province of al-Raqqa, the de facto capital of the IS.

Other activists, the Local Coordination Committees (LCC), said at least 15 people were killed and tens of others wounded as a result of the airstrikes against Palmyra.

The IS terror group seized full control of the millennia-old oasis city of Palmyra, otherwise known as Tadmur, on May 20 this year.

Since capturing it, the terror-labeled group destroyed the city's notorious military prison and several Islamic tombs and centuries-old temples.

The IS also committed public executions of government soldiers and people accused of working for the government.

The intensified airstrikes came as reports of Syrian army started using newly-received Russian weaponry emerged Thursday.

The pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV said "the new weaponry sent by Russia is of high and precise efficiency and the Syrian army has started getting trained to use them."

The TV didn't elaborate on where exactly the new weapons were deployed.

Russian officials have recently stressed that Moscow will continue providing military aid to Damascus, and that the military support will be accompanied by Russian specialists.

"There were military supplies. They are ongoing and they will continue," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Sunday. "They are inevitably accompanied by Russian specialists, who help to adjust the equipment, to train Syrian personnel to use these weaponry."

Russia says the military aid is aimed at combating terrorism in accordance with international law.

Syria is reeling under four years of conflict and intense battles between government troops and an array of ultra-radical groups such as the Nursra Front and the IS. Enditem