Russia denies its warplanes hit Syria hospital

The UN envoy met Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem in Damascus on Tuesday to discuss a resumption of peace talks.

The U.N. envoy arrived in the Syrian capital Monday for discussions on aid deliveries and resuming peace talks in Geneva.

The north has been the focus of the most intense clashes in recent weeks in Syria. Syria’s state news agency SANA and the Observatory said Tuesday that government forces took the villages of Ahras and Misqan.

The Dutch defense ministry says its F-16 fighter jets have joined airstrikes targeting the Islamic State group in Syria.

“There is not going to be a unilateral military operation from Turkey to Syria”, an official said in Istanbul.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah says both countries are driven by their “hatred” after the successive defeats suffered by rebels they support in Syria.

These incidents “cast a shadow on the commitments” made at the February 11 meeting of the International Syria Support Group, he said.

The main Kurdish militia, known as the YPG, dominates the group known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, which also includes Arab fighters. They are taking advantage of the chaos to advance and try to link the two enclaves they control to the east and west. They have advanced eastward from Afrin and from the west to the edge of Azaz, triggering alarm in Ankara, which responded with artillery on Kurdish positions. A Turkish official says his country is pushing the case for ground operations in Syria, hoping for the… Since the shelling began three days ago, six civilians have been killed, including a woman and a child, he added. If SDF captures Kaljibrin, it would squeeze rebels in their stronghold of Mareh and the adjacent village of Sheikh Issa, which is also under attack by the IS. After Tel Rifaat, SDF fighters also took the nearby village of Kfar Naseh, south of the town.

SDF official Ahmad al-Omar said dignitaries from northern Syria are mediating a deal to open a corridor for militants to leave Marea for the northern town of Azaz near the border. The SDF has been one of the most effective forces in fighting the extremists and has liberated large parts of northern Syria. Warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition pound IS-held areas in the zone, while Russian Federation, a key Assad backer, bombs the rebels.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitor, said it suspected that Russian warplanes were behind the attack, based on the location of the raids and the flight patterns and types of planes involved.

Russian Federation is not bombing hospitals in northern Syria, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday, calling such reports “unsubstantiated accusations”.

As many as 50 people, including at least 12 children, are believed to have died in the strikes in rebel-held areas of northern Syria. The U.S. military said that bombing was a mistake after Afghan forces hadrequested an airstrike.

The Syrian ambassador, Bashar Ja’afari, also accused Doctors Without Borders of being a branch of French intelligence.

The air strikes came days after Russian Federation and other world powers agreed to bring about a pause in fighting next week to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid.