After Jihadists ISIS Urges all Muslims To Attack U.S., French Citizens...US and five Arab countries blitz terror group's Jihadists in Syrian base by launching FIFTY bombing missions in massive wave of strikes from both sea and air...
Syria says Washington informed it before strikes
Syria says Washington informed it before strikes
Syria (AP) — The Syrian foreign ministry said Tuesday that Washington informed Damascus' envoy to the United Nations before launching airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Syria, attacks that activists said inflicted casualties among jihadi fighters and civilians on the ground.
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A brief ministry statement, carried by Syrian state media, said "the American side informed Syria's permanent envoy to the U.N. that strikes will be launched against the Daesh terrorist organization in Raqqa."
he statement used an Arabic name referring to the Islamic State group, which seized large chunks of Syrian and Iraqi territory in a blitz this summer.
The airstrikes hit targets in and around the Syrian city of Raqqa and the province with the same name as well as the eastern province of Deir el-Zour, activists said, adding that there were casualties among Islamic State militants on the ground. The city of Raqqa is the militant group's self-declared capital in Syria.
The activists said the strikes did not only target the Islamic State group but also the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front.
The ministry statement was Damascus' first official reaction after the U.S. and five Arab countries launched airstrikes on Islamic State group's targets in Syria late on Monday, expanding a military campaign into a country whose three-year civil war has given the brutal militant group a safe haven.
U.S. officials said the airstrikes began around 8:30 p.m. EDT (0030 GMT) Monday, and were conducted by the U.S., Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
In Jordan, a government spokesman confirmed the Jordanian air force took part in the airstrikes, saying they were necessary to secure the stability and security of Jordan.
"We think it's necessary for us to target the positions of the Islamic State group in light of the continuous attempts to infiltrate our borders," said Mohammad al-Momani. "We will not hesitate to take further actions to target and kill terrorists who are trying to attack our country."
In the past, Syrian officials have insisted that any strikes against the Islamic State group in the country should come only after coordination with Damascus. Without their consent, Syrian officials have said such airstrikes would be an act of aggression against Syria and a breach of the country's sovereignty.
However, U.S. officials have ruled out direct coordination with Syrian President Bashar Assad's government.
Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the airstrikes targeted the northern province of Raqqa, its provincial capital, as well as the eastern province of Deir el-Zour, which border's Iraq, and the northern village of Kfar Derian between the northern province of Aleppo and Idlib.
"There is confirmed information that there are casualties among Islamic State group members," he told The Associated Press, adding there were an unspecified number of casualties among the militants, mostly on checkpoints manned by the Islamic State fighters.
The Observatory, which has a network of activists around the country, said the attacks came after drones flew over areas under control of the Islamic State group. Abdurrahman said about 22 airstrikes in all hit Raqqa province.
He said that other strikes included locations in the towns of Tabqa and Ein Issa in Raqqa province, as well as the border town of Tel Abyad on the border with Turkey.
Missiles also targeted the village of Kfar Derian, a base for the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, a rival of the Islamic State group, he said. The U.S. strikes targeted three compounds belonging to the Nusra Front there, killing seven fighters and eight civilians, he added.
Another activist, Mohammed al-Dughaim, based in the northern Syrian province of Idlib, confirmed the Kfar Derian strikes. He said there were civilians among the casualties.
An amateur video posted online Tuesday shows explosions going off at night in an open area, blasts that are said to be from coalition airstrikes. The narrator in the video is heard saying that the footage shows the "bombardment of the Kfar Derian village." The narrator then adds "Allahu Akbar" or "God is great" in Arabic. The video appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting of the events.
An anti-militant media collective entitled "Raqqa is being silently slaughtered" said that the targets included the governorate building or municipality used by Islamic State militants as their headquarters, and the Brigade 93, a Syrian army base that the militants recently seized.
Other airstrikes targeted a military air base recently captured by jihadi fighters in the town of Tabqa as well as the town of Tel Abyad on the border with Turkey.
