Russia denies strikes against Syria's Idlib

The Russian Defense Ministry Tuesday denied a report that the Russian air force had launched strikes against Syria's northwestern province of Idlib.

"The Russian air force performed no combat missions, nor launched strikes in the province of Idlib," Defense Ministry spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov said in a written statement.

Earlier on Tuesday Reuters news agency quoted a report from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, saying at least 23 people were killed in the rebel-held provincial capital city of Idlib.

Konashenkov urged a more critical attitude to "horror stories" from the "British tandem" of the London-based pro-opposition Syrian human rights group and Reuters, which he said had been previously found distributing false information.

The Russian air force has been deployed in Syria for anti-terror missions at the request of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in September 2015, while the bulk of troops withdrew in March.

Moscow has repeatedly denied attacking civilian targets, claiming the high-precision air strikes were directed exclusively against terrorists groups operating in the war-torn country. Endi