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BROWSE THE SYRIA DEEPLY ARCHIVES

Executive Summary for February 8th

We review the key developments in Syria, including heavy airstrikes killing at least 26 in Idlib city, Syria’s justice ministry rejecting Amnesty’s report of mass hangings in Sednaya prison and Turkey and the U.S. agreeing to work together against ISIS.

Published on Feb. 8, 2017 Read time Approx. 2 minutes

Airstrikes Kill More Than 20 in Idlib City

Heavy airstrikes hit the rebel-held northeastern city of Idlib on Tuesday, killing more than two dozen people, Al Jazeera reported.

The United Kingdom-based monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 26 people were killed, making it the deadliest attack on the city since the nationwide cease-fire went into effect in December. SOHR head Rami Abdulrahman told Al Jazeera that at least “ten civilians, mostly women, are among the dead.” The Syria Civil Defense in Idlib said that at least 30 people were taken for medical treatment, the Associated Press reported.

Abdulrahman added that the air raids were likely carried out by Russian or U.S.-led coalition warplanes. Russian defense ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov denied the claim, saying that no Russian planes had targeted Idlib this year.

Syria Rejects Amnesty Report of Mass Hangings

Syria’s justice ministry said Amnesty International’s new report claiming some 13,000 were executed in Sednaya prison outside Damascus is “totally untrue,” the Associated Press reported.

The report, which detailed the findings of a year of investigations, said that mass hangings took place every week in the prison between September 2011 and December 2015. According to Amnesty, the Grand Mufti and either the defense minister or the army’s chief of staff approved the death sentences and the executions were performed following “trials” conducted in military “field courts.” Reports indicated that the bodies were then moved to the Tishreen Military Hospital and buried on military property in mass graves.

The statement, published by Syria’s state-run news agency, said the justice ministry “denies and condemns in the strongest terms what was reported because it is not based on correct evidence but on personal emotions that aim to achieve well-known political goals.”

U.S. and Turkey to Fight ISIS Together

Turkish presidential sources said that the United States and Turkey have agreed to fight together against the so-called Islamic State group (ISIS) in Syria, Reuters reported.

In a 45-minute phone call late Tuesday night, Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. president Donald Trump discussed the refugee crisis and the possibility of creating safe zones in Syria and agreed to work together to push ISIS militants out of the Syrian towns of al-Bab and Raqqa.

Sources also told Reuters that Erdogan urged Trump to stop supporting the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which has been a key ally of the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS.

In a brief statement, the White House said the two countries had a “shared commitment to combating terrorism in all its forms,” but gave no further details. However, CIA director Mike Pompeo is set to visit Turkey on Thursday to discuss security issues, the Associated Press reported.

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