Turkey slams Russian attacks in Syria

By Sultan Cogalan

ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish Foreign Ministry released a statement Wednesday slamming Russian attacks in Syria.

"It is unacceptable for the sake of humanity that the Russian Federation, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, uses all kind of weapons and ammunition against civilians just like the regime," the statement read.

The Turkish ministry said broadcast footage showing Russian warplanes using incendiary cluster munitions and phosphorus bombs in the Aleppo area for the last two days was “extremely worrying”.

A Russian state television channel broadcast Tuesday footage appearing to show Russian warplanes carrying out airstrikes in Syria with such munitions, according to the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), an open-source intelligence outfit.

In September 2015, the Russian military began a campaign of much-criticized airstrikes in Syria at the request of the Bashar al-Assad regime.

This March, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial withdrawal from Syria, saying that the operation had achieved its goals.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests which erupted as part of the ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings.

Since then, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-torn country, according to the UN.

The Syrian Center for Policy Research, however, put the death toll from the six-year conflict at more than 470,000 people.