Russia is not trying to create an Alawite state in Syria: FM spox Zakharova
Russia is not trying to create an Alawite state in Syria and sees Syria as a unified country, foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.
"For several years we have always said openly and publicly, during the negotiations processes and multilateral formats that our understanding of the future of Syria -- which obviously must be formed by the efforts of the Syrians themselves -- boils down to the fact that Syria must be a multi-confessional state in which democratic principles are in force, and each time we have stressed that, of course, this state must be whole and united," Zakharova said.
Statements that Russian airstrikes inflaming war in Syria 'absurd': Russian FM spox
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has dismissed as "absurd" accusations from Britain and other countries that Russia's air strikes in Syria are inflaming the civil war.
"For example, the position of our British colleagues on Syria. To what is this increase in creative inspiration connected? What we are hearing is, of course, absurd. Such as, these statements about Russian military intervention in Syria and about whether they, our air force, or our actions in general are stimulating civil war in that country," Zakharova said.
Photo claims to show Afghan Shi'ite militia entering Syrian villages
This photo purports to show fighters from the Liwa Fatemiyoun -- an Afghan Shi'ite militia funded and trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps -- entering the Shi'ite villages of Nubl and Zahra in Syria's Aleppo province.
Syrian government forces and allied militias broke a years'-long rebel siege on the villages yesterday and entered them today, according to state media.
IS in Libya uses billboards to crucify 'spies'
The Telegraph reports on the latest horrific method IS is using to kill those who oppose it, this time in Libya.
Militants are using the gantries of billboards in Sirte -- the group's Libyan stronghold -- to crucify those it accuses of "spying" against it.
Contrary to popular perception, crucifixion as practiced by [IS] does not mean nailing hands and feet into a cross and leaving the victim to die. Instead, the victim is usually killed beforehand, and then left for several days afterwards, rather like the gibbets that were used in medieval Britain.
Red Cross delivers aid to (another) besieged Syrian town
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says it and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent delivered humanitarian aid yesterday to 12,000 people in the besieged rebel-held town of Moadamiyeh near Damascus.
The aid consisted of food and hygiene items. Medicines and other medical supplies were distributed for around 10,000 people.
Thousands of people waited for hours on the edge of the buffer-zone separating the warring parties, where the food deliveries were made. Moadamiyeh is one of the many towns that is under siege in Syria.
"People in besieged areas count every day of their life as a bonus. They have so little to survive on. They want us to bring relief regularly and that's what we are continuously asking for," the ICRC's head of delegation in Syria, Marianne Gasser, who led the team which entered Moadamiyeh.
"What we have seen on our way into town only shows how desperate the people are in Moadamiyeh. They are hungry and they need us. Unconditional aid must be allowed to reach people in all the besieged and hard-to-reach areas in Syria," she said.
Syrian Foreign Ministry slams U.S., French responses to gov't advances in Aleppo
Syria's Foreign Ministry has criticized statements by the United States and France accusing Syria and Russia of torpedoing peace talks with a campaign to retake rebel-held territory in Aleppo.
State news agency SANA cited a foreign ministry source as saying that the French and U.S. statements were "quite odd."
The statements by France and the United States "belied their feigned care for the Syrian people," SANA added.
SANA described the breaking of the rebel siege on Nubl and Zahra as an "important victory":
The army sealed an important victory on Wednesday by breaking the long time terrorist siege of Nubbul and al-Zahraa towns in the northern countryside of Aleppo province, which followed a series of other previous victories.
The siege, which was imposed by the two terrorist organizations of [the Al-Nusra Front] and Ahrar al-Sham among others, lasted for three and a half years, during which the locals showed "an unrelenting resilience and unshakable confidence in victory over the terrorists,”"according to the source.
'Mass celebrations' in Shi'ite towns after gov't troops break rebel siege: SANA
Syrian state news agency SANA is reporting "mass celebrations" in the Shi'ite towns of Nubl and Zahra in northern Aleppo province, after Syrian government troops and allied militias reached them, breaking a years-long siege imposed by rebel groups including Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate the Al-Nusra front.
Russian military adviser died in Syria's Homs province: Novaya Gazeta
A Russian military adviser killed in Syria died after sustaining serious injuries during the shelling by IS militants of a Syrian army training center in Homs province, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov has told Novaya Gazeta.
Four Syrians also died in the attack. The Russian military adviser was seriously wounded and died of his injuries in hospital on Feb. 1, according to Konashenkov.
Novaya Gazeta reports that its sources say the attack on the training center took place on Jan. 26, the same day that an IS bombing killed 24 people in government-controlled Homs city.
The Kremlin has refused to disclose the name of the military adviser.
Billions pledged to Syria at donor conference in London
Donor nations pledged Feb. 4 to give billions of dollars in aid to Syrians as world leaders gathered for a conference in London to tackle the world's worst humanitarian crisis after the breakdown of peace talks the day before, Reuters reports.
"The situation is not sustainable. We cannot go on like this. There is no military solution. Only political dialogue will rescue the Syrian people from their intolerable suffering," U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the meeting.