Syrian Government ready to attend peace talks in Geneva
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Yesterday the Syrian Government announced that it is ready to attend peace talks later this month with the Opposition in Geneva as a new air strike in northern Syria killed and wounded scores of people, including many militants.
But Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said Damascus also wants to see lists of the Opposition groups who will attend and ensure that “terrorist” groups will not be represented.
State news agency SANA said al-Moallem made his comments while meeting in Damascus with UN envoy Staffan de Mistura. Al-Moallem’s comments came shortly before opposition activists said an air strike had killed at least 39 and wounded dozens of others.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 39 people were killed, including many fighters from al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, the Nusra Front, as well as detainees in the north-western town of Maaret al-Numan. It said the targetted area included a jail and a courthouse run by Nusra Front.
The Nusra Front is one of the country’s most powerful factions and is opposed to peace talks with the Government, saying its aim is to step up an Islamic State in Syria. The group is fighting against Government forces, the Islamic State group as well as some US-backed rebel factions. Much like its rival, the Islamic State group, the Nusra Front imposes its own vision of Islamic Shariah law in territories it controls — including Islamic courts and prisons.
The Syrian Government has been carrying out air strikes for years, which activists say have killed thousands of people. Russia began its own air campaign on September 30 saying its air strikes are meant to weaken the Islamic State group and other “terrorists” in Syria.
The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said the air strike killed 51. The group posted a photo on its Facebook page showing several bodies covered with blankets and lined out on a pavement. Another showed two dead bearded young men being loaded into an ambulance.
Syria-based activist Hadi Abdallah wrote on his Twitter account that the air raid killed 43 and wounded more than 100, claiming it was carried out by Russian aircraft.
The “terrifying massacres was carried out by Russian warplanes,” Abdallah wrote, without saying why he believed they were Russian.
Conflicting casualty figures are common in the aftermath of air strikes in Syria.
The Observatory said the warplanes fired four missiles that hit the Islamic court, which includes a jail, as well as a nearby road linking the court with a market.
