Russian strikes help Syrian army advance, Putin reaches out to Saudis

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russian warplanes pounded Syrian rebels unaffiliated with Islamic State on Sunday, October 11, insurgents said, helping Moscow's ally Bashar al-Assad reclaim territory and dealing a fresh setback to the strategy of Washington and its allies, Reuters reports.

President Vladimir Putin - who has infuriated Assad's enemies in the United States, Europe, Turkey and the Arab world by bombing the rebels to protect him - reached out to one of the Syrian leader's fiercest opponents by meeting the powerful defense minister of Saudi Arabia.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the 4-year-old conflict, said the Syrian military and its Lebanese Hezbollah militia allies had taken control of Tal Skik, a highland area in Idlib province, after fierce Russian bombing.

That brings Syrian government forces closer to insurgent-held positions along the main highway that links Syria's principal cities. The area is held by a rebel alliance that excludes Islamic State fighters.

The Syrian army made advances from the towns of Mourek and Atshan in Hama province using tanks, heavy artillery and new surface-to-surface missiles, he said.

Russia said its planes had flown 64 sorties, striking 63 targets and destroying 53 fortified positions in the previous 24 hours. As in the past, it described all targets as belonging to Islamic State, although most of the areas it said it had struck are not held by that group.

Syrian state television also reported that the government had captured Tal Skik with the help of Russian air strikes. However, the advance came at a cost, with the Observatory and a Lebanese television station reporting that a senior Hezbollah commander had been killed fighting on the Syrian government side.

Putin's meeting with Riyadh's Defence Minister Mohammed bin Salman, a son of the Saudi king and leading figure in its regional security policy, was the Kremlin's boldest move to reach out to Assad's foes since launching the strikes.

After the meeting, which took place on the sidelines of a Formula One Grand Prix race in the Russian resort of Sochi, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow had sought to assuage Riyadh's concerns. Both sides shared the objective of preventing a "terrorist caliphate" from taking root in Syria, he said.

Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Saudi Arabia, which along with other Arab states has joined a U.S.-led coalition bombing Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, was still demanding Assad's removal from power. He hoped talks with Russia would continue.

Putin also met Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who holds a senior post in the armed forces of the United Arab Emirates, another rich Gulf state hostile to Assad.