IS advance in Aleppo thanks to Russian air raids

Russia has carried out air raids on Syrian opposition forces fighting the Islamic state group [IS] in the north of Aleppo province, leading to the Islamic militant group capturing two previously opposition-held towns.

"Russian war planes have carried out intense air raids on rebel positions on the frontline with IS, which has captured the adjacent towns of Jariz and Kafra," sources told al-Araby al-Jadeed's Syria correspondent Ahmad Hamza.

	Russia's bombing campaign is supporting the Assad regime [Getty]

The two towns lie in between the cities of Azaz and Marea north of Aleppo city.

Abdulraziq Mustafa, a local journalist, told al-Araby al-Jadeed that "Russian war planes have also bombed rebel positions in the town of Jibrin next to Kafra, where IS is now in control,".

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Russian war planes also conducted air raids in the rebel-held town of al-Latamina 39 kilometres northwest of Hama, a source in the Hama Media Centre said.

Government forces backed by Russian fighter jets fired heavy artillery into the town of al-Soura in the southern province of Daraa on Wednesday afternoon.

In the city of Duma 10 kilometres north-east of Damascus renewed shelling killed and wounded several civilians, local sources said.

Also on Wednesday, the Syrian Network for Human Rights said that 67 people have been tortured to death inside regime and rebel detention facilities in November.

Russia, a staunch ally to the Syrian government, began an aerial bombing campaign in support of regime forces on September 30, saying it was targeting IS and other extremist groups.

But rebels from other groups accuse Russia of focusing its firepower more on moderate and Islamist opposition fighters than IS.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the Russian strikes have killed a total of 1,502 people, almost a third of them civilians and including 598 al-Qaeda fighters, 419 IS members and the rest other rebels.

An estimated 250,000 people have been killed in Syria since the onset of the uprising against Assad, which began with demonstrations in March 2011.