Syrian troops and their allies, backed by Russian jets, attacked rebel-held towns north of the city of Homs on Thursday, targeting a long-held and strategic enclave of opposition to the psychopath Baschar al-Assad.
The offensive that began before dawn builds on over a week of ground attacks launched with Russian air support in areas of western Syria that are crucial to Assad’s survival and held by rebel groups other than Islamic State.
Activists on the ground monitoring the combat operations said that, in two days of fighting, the death toll is 60 Syrians who died of whom 30 are fighters and 30 are children and women. Russian fighter-to-civilian kill ratio is 50%. For every fighter Putin kills, he also kills a woman or a child.
Yet, world news media outlets are going berserk over unintentional civilian deaths in Israel while ignoring Putin’s intentional killing of civilians in Syria.
Some of the civilian death took place in Teir Malla, about 3 miles (5 km) north of Homs city. Of the 30 rebels killed, Rawad al Aksah, a commander of insurgent group Liwaa al-Tawhid was one of them.
Other civilian deaths were caused by heavy air strikes around the town of Talbiseh and other villages in the area.
Recapturing the area north of Homs would help reassert Assad’s control over the main population centers of western Syria and secure territory linking Damascus to the coastal heartland of his minority Alawite sect.
The Syrian army, supported by foreign allies including Iran, has launched several ground offensives to retake insurgent-held territory since Russian jets started air strikes against rebel targets – mainly in western Syria – two weeks ago.
The Russian fighter-to-civilian kill ratio is 50%. The ratio will soon become another call for jihad against the Assad regime, Russia, and Iran. Such carelessness on the part of Putin is feeding the fuel of war, not diminishing it.
Already, both Saudi Arabia and Turkey announced their support for the rebels is unwavering.
Reuters contributed to this article.
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