MESOP SYRIA UPDATE: Lavrov – Russia is Bombing to Stop ISIS…Who Are 435 Miles Away

18 Nov 2016 – : The pro-opposition Local Coordination Committees documented the killing of 80 people across Syria on Thursday, including 49 people in Aleppo Province.Pro-Assad attacks also killed 13 people in the Damascus suburbs and 10 in Idlib Province.Among the dead were 17 children and nine women.The LCC is also reporting Russian as well as regime strikes on eastern Aleppo city this morning, including Moscow’s use of parachute-retarded missiles. Districts targeted include Shaar and Sakhour.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has offered a new, novel explanation for Russia’s bombing across northwest Syria, saying that it is prevent Islamic State fighters from entering the opposite side of the country.Lavrov said after “constructive” talks with his US counterpart, John Kerry. on Thursday that warplanes are attacking Idlib and Homs Province so ISIS members cannot retreat from Iraq’s second Mosul — facing an Iraqi-Kurdish offensive — do not cross into Syria:Our aviation and the aviation of Syria work only in the provinces of Idlib and Homs in order to prevent the IS from crossing into Syria from Mosul.

The Foreign Minister’s statement also denied that Russia has renewed its assault in and near besieged opposition-held eastern Aleppo city, alongside incessant regime attack — including barrel bombs — which has killed almost 200 people since Wednesday.Videos and photographs have shown Russian cruise missiles, fired from ships in the eastern Mediterranean, and warplanes attacking through Aleppo Province. Among the targets are medical facilities, with at least hit in the last 72 hours.

An unexploded 500-lb. Russian bomb in the al-Firdous section of eastern Aleppo city:

Lavrov responded to the US State Department’s criticism of attacks on five hospitals in Idlib and Aleppo Province, with the insistence that Russian jets have not been flown in Aleppo during the last 30 days. He maintained while targets are “carefully selected”.

Kerry said the discussion, on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders meeting in Peru, considered “every aspect of Aleppo”:

We had a constructive, important conversation about a number of topics ranging from Yemen to Libya and to Syria, obviously, as well as Ukraine and bilateral concerns. So we had a very broad discussion.

Russia and the Assad regime have besieged eastern Aleppo city, with about 270,000 residents, since late August. They bombed intensively from September 19 to October 18, killing more than 600 people. Facing international criticism over complicity in the regime’s “war crimes”, Moscow suspended the attacks but continued bombing elsewhere through Syria. www.mesop.de