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world NEWSSaturday 28 November 2015
Strikes on IS city, focus of international campaign, kill 8
ZEINA KARAM
Associated Press
BEIRUT (AP) — A new wave
of airstrikes targeting the
Syrian city of Raqqa, the
headquarters of the ex-
tremist Islamic State group
and the focus of an in-
ternational military cam-
paign, killed at least eight
people, including five chil-
dren, Syrian opposition
groups said Friday.
The strikes came as
France’s foreign minister,
Laurent Fabius, declared
that destroying the IS
headquarters and “neu-
tralizing and eradicating”
the extremist group is the
main objective of the inter-
national campaign.
It wasn’t immediately clear
who carried out the latest
airstrikes. The city in north- ahead productively with-
ern Syria is the group’s de
facto capital and has be-
come the focus of interna-
tional airstrikes in the wake
of the Paris terror attacks
and the bombing of a Rus-
sian jetliner over Egypt’s Si-
nai Peninsula. IS has said it
was behind both attacks.
Those developments have
turned the world’s atten-
tion to the fight against IS
at a time when the interna-
tional community is trying
to engage Syrians in a dip-
lomatic process that would
lead to a political transition
in the war-ravaged coun-
try.
That process faces enor-
mous hurdles, including the
fate of President Bashar
Assad and agreeing on
which armed factions
in Syria should be allowed
to take part in negotia-
tions.
Speaking in Moscow at a
joint news conference with
the Syrian foreign minis-
ter Friday, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov said
French army Rafale fighter jets flying towards Syria as part of France’s Operation Chammal
launched in support of the US-led coalition against Islamic State group. A new wave of airstrikes
targeting the Syrian city of Raqqa killed at least eight people, Syrian opposition groups said
Friday.
Friday that peace talks
for Syria cannot go ahead
until all parties involved
agree on a list of which
groups should be listed as
terrorist and which as legiti- who stays and who goes.
mate opposition.
“Vienna talks cannot go
out such a list of terrorists
and a list of opposition
groups,” Lavrov said, add-
ing that the lists should be
vetted by the U.N. Security “Better late than never,” bombardment occurred
Council. al-Moallem said. “The Syr- when warplanes targeted
Syrian Foreign Minister ian army is ready to collab- the city’s Heten School.
Walid al-Moallem scoffed orate with anyone who has The school, like others in
at those who call on Assad the intention to fight terror- Raqqa, has been taken
to step down, comparing ism in Syria,” he said, add- over by IS.
them to “those who dream ing that first France would The Syrian Observatory
of the devil in heaven.” have to change its whole for Human Rights put the
death toll at 12, including
the five children. Conflict-
ing casualty figures are
common in the chaos
of Syria’s civil war, now in
its fifth year.
(French Army/ECPAD via AP) Russia and a U.S.-led coali-
tion that includes France
“All those who demanded take on the Syrian crisis. have been pounding
the resignation of Assad Fabius later clarified his Raqqa.
have left and Assad re- comments, saying such An IS-affiliated agency,
mained,” he said, adding cooperation must be part Aamaq, published a video
that elections will decide of a political transition in purporting to show night-
which Assad would step time explosions that lit up
Al-Moallem also seized on down. the Raqqa sky. The video
comments made by Fabi- A Raqqa-based activist showed a building and
us Friday in which he sug- group that reports on IS, several cars on fire, and a
gested France could work known as Raqqa is Being man crouching over the
with Syrian government Slaughtered Silently, said bodies of five children. The
forces to fight the Islamic Friday that most of the ca- agency claimed the casu-
State group. sualties in the latest aerial alties and destruction were
caused by Russian airstrikes
that targeted civilian ar-
eas.
In an interview with RTL
radio, Fabius said that de-
stroying IS is an objective
that all countries agree
upon. He spoke after a
week of intense diploma-
cy capped by the French
president’s meeting with
Russian President Vladimir
Putin.
Francois Hollande has
been on a diplomatic drive
since the Paris attacks to
increase cooperation in
tackling IS, which holds
large swathes of territory in
both Syria and Iraq.q