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WORLD NEWS 9
Tuesday 12 April 2016

With UN envoy in Damascus, IS takes Syrian town from rebels

A Russian serviceman checks for mines in Palmyra, Syria. Islamic State militants recaptured a vote — expected to be a fighters southwest and
vital border crossing in northern Syria and shot down a government warplane in the country’s rubber stamp of Assad loy- north of Aleppo and plans
west Monday as the U.N.’s special envoy urged the warring parties to respect a fragile cease-fire alists — will only take place to cut a strategic highway
ahead of peace talks set to resume in Geneva this week. in government-controlled linking the city with the rest
areas as the Damascus au- of the country.
(Russian Defense Ministry Press Service Photo via AP) thorities are unable to or- Rudskoi said the Syrian
ganize any balloting in ter- army backed by Russian
ALBERT AJI “of protecting and main- ter parliamentary elections ritory under rebel or Islamic warplanes is taking action
BASSEM MROUE taining and supporting are to be held in Syria. The State control. to derail Nusra’s plan.
Associated Press the cessation of hostili- Meanwhile, In Washington, U.S. State
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Is- ties,” describing it as fragile opposition activists report- Department spokesman
lamic State militants recap- and stressing that all sides ed clashes and govern- Mark Toner said Secretary
tured a vital border cross- “need to make sure that it ment air raids near Aleppo, of State John Kerry, speak-
ing in northern Syria and continues to be sustained.” where rebel factions along- ing to his Russian coun-
shot down a government The U.N. envoy said the side al-Qaida’s Syria affili- terpart Sergei Lavrov in a
warplane in the country’s talks would focus on a po- ate, the Nusra Front, seized telephone call Sunday, ex-
west Monday as the U.N.’s litical transition for Syria, territory from the govern- pressed concern over the
special envoy urged the where the civil war, now ment earlier this month. recent increase in violence
warring parties to respect a in its sixth year, has killed Russia’s military announced in Aleppo and elsewhere
fragile cease-fire ahead of 250,000 people and dis- Monday it would help the aimed not just at IS and the
peace talks set to resume placed half the country’s Syrian army battle back Nusra Front,
in Geneva this week. pre-war population of 23 the Nusra Front, but “there which are excluded from
U.N. Special Envoy Staffan million people. About 4 mil- is no plan to storm Aleppo.” the U.S.- and Russian-bro-
de Mistura’s plea came lion people have fled the Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi of kered cease-fire, but at
amid stepped up fighting country. the military’s general staff rebel groups that are cov-
around the northern city of “We will be focusing in par- said Nusra has nearly 10,000 ered by it.q
Aleppo, Syria’s largest, and ticular on political transi-
elsewhere in the country’s tion, on governance and
northern and western prov- constitutional principles,”
inces. de Mistura said.
He spoke after meeting “We hope and plan to
with Syrian Foreign Min- make them constructive ...
ister Walid al-Moallem in and concrete.”
Damascus in preparation Al-Moallem called for a
for the talks, set to begin dialogue “without precon-
Wednesday in Geneva ditions,” a reference to
between the government opposition demands that
and an umbrella opposi- President Bashar Assad step
tion coalition backed by down and be excluded
the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and from any transitional gov-
other Western powers. ernment. He said the gov-
De Mistura said he em- ernment delegation would
phasized the importance arrive Friday, two days af-