Missile strike on the terrorists in Syria || Weekly News, 25th of April, 2020

The »Al-Masdar» news website reported that the Syrian army launched rocket and artillery strikes on the positions of the terrorist group »Jebhat al-Nusra» located near Afis, in the province of Idlib. It was underline that over the past few days, the Syrian high command repeatedly stated that it won’t tolerate the clusters of terrorist groups in the area. The Syrian military underlined that a construction of an outpost in Afis by the terrorists and the following deployment of their reinforcements is a threat to the government troops deployed in the south and east of Idlib. It also violates the ceasefire agreement from 5th of March on the north of the de-escalation zone. The »Al-Masdar» reported that the Syrian artillery also attacked the terrorist bases of the »Turkestan Islamic Party», which repeatedly bombarded villages in Idlib and Hama, which are protected by the Syrian troops.

The SANA reported that the Syrian air defenses repelled an Israeli air attack near Palmyra, in the eastern province of Homs. The Syrian air defenses managed to intercept several incoming missiles above Palmyra before they reached the ground targets. The »Al Mayadeen» reported that the Israeli airplanes launched missiles at the military facilities located north of the Palmyra Airport. The TASS news agency reported that the representatives of the IDF refused to comment on the reports of the Israeli attacks in the Palmyra region.

The SANA news agency reported that Turkey sent additional weapons to the Abu Rasayn region, in the Syrian province of Hasakah. This is a new violation of the international law. It was reported that the Turkish forces delivered 4 artillery trucks to the villages of Ad-Davudiya and Anek Al-Hawa, in the region of Abu Raseyn, at the north of Hasakah. The SANA agency underlined that most of the weapons, delivered by the Turkish forces into Syria, are being distributed to the terrorists controlled by Turkey “in order to continue the criminal actions against the local population”, and “to carry out attacks on the neighboring safe areas”.

The Russian Permanent Mission to the UN criticized the position of Kiev, which blocked the draft resolution on the fight against the coronavirus proposed by Russia to the UN General Assembly. Earlier, the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmitry Kuleba, announced the blocking of the Russian resolution to the UN that proposes to ease the sanctions during the pandemic. The position of Ukraine will prevent the lifting of the economic sanctions from a number of developing countries during the pandemic. The Russian diplomatic mission underlined the ill intent of the Ukrainian position. “We would like to remind you that the call for the removal of the economic sanctions, that limit the ability to combat the pandemic, was directed specifically to the developing countries, which our Ukrainian colleagues apparently do not care about” — the Permanent Mission of Russia underlined. It was noted that the refusal of a number of countries, including Ukraine, Georgia, the UK, the USA, and the EU states, to support the Russian proposal to ease the one-sided sanctions will complicate the overall fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced that Moscow has noticed the efforts of Ankara to push out the terrorists that impede the patrolling of the M4 highway in the Syrian province of Idlib. Moscow expects that the complete separation of the moderate opposition from the terrorists will take place. According to Maria Zakharova — the Russian and Turkish military, in accordance with the additional protocol from 5th of March, created a security corridor along the M4 highway in Idlib, and also established regular joint patrols. However their combined work met an active opposition from the radical groups, still remaining in the de-escalation zone.

The Japanese newspaper ‘Sankei’ reported with a reference to the US Air Force command that the US recalled the B-52 strategic bombers from the island of Guam in the Pacific Ocean and relocated them to a military base in North Dakota. ‘Sankei’ reported that the bases on Guam are in the potential strike zone of the Chinese medium-range missiles. Therefore it was decided to pull back the bombers from a potential strike from China, and use them more flexibly in Washington’s global plans. According to the Sankei — the Pentagon does not rule out a new temporary transfer of the aircraft back to Guam. Constantine Reztsov, specially for ANNA NEWS.