New Russia-Turkey Air Strikes In Syria: Army

MOSCOW, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Jan, 2017 ) : Russian and Turkish warplanes carried out new air strikes in Syria Thursday, targeting positions of the Islamic State jihadists in the town of Al-Bab in the Aleppo region, Russia's army said Thursday.

"On January 26, the Russian and Turkish air forces conducted another joint air operation against the Islamic State group in the town of Al-Bab," the army said in a statement. The operation involved Russia's Su-24M bombers and Su-35S fighter planes along with Turkey's F-16 and F-4 fighter jets, the army statement said.

The Russian planes "destroyed three command and communication centres and several fortified positions," it added.

Moscow and Ankara had already carried out air strikes against IS in Al-Bab on January 18 and 21, after signing an accord earlier this month to coordonate their air campaign against "terrorist targets" in Syria.

In all, 58 IS targets had been destroyed in the joint air raids, the Russian army said. Syrian rebel backer Turkey and Damascus regime ally Russia, along with Iran, sponsored two days of Syrian peace negotiations this week between the two sides in the Kazakh capital of Astana.

The talks wrapped up on Tuesday without any tangible progress in finding a political solution to the conflict, which has claimed 310,000 lives since it started in 2011.