Russia’s military said Friday that its Air Force had bombed anti-government forces in Syria to repel “extremists” that have launched a major offensive on the city of Aleppo, state news agencies reported.
Jihadists and their Turkish-backed allies reached Syria’s second city on Friday, pressing a lightning offensive against forces of the Iranian- and Russian-backed government.
The fighting is some of the deadliest in years in Syria’s civil war.
“The Russian Air Force is carrying out rocket-bomb attacks on the equipment and manpower of illegal armed groups, control points, warehouses and artillery positions of terrorists,” news agencies reported a spokesperson for the Defense Ministry’s Reconciliation Center for Syria as saying.
