Russian Strikes in Syria Hit Area of Suspected Massacre
Source: New York Times
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Russian airstrikes hit Islamic State militants Tuesday in the eastern Syrian province of Deir al-Zour, in the village where the extremist group had been accused of massacring as many as hundreds of people over the weekend, the Russian military said.
The strikes, which Russia said had killed at least 60 militants, came as intense fighting continued for a fourth day around the provincial capital, and a resident described seeing bodies of government soldiers who had been hanged, and truckloads of corpses.
“I saw a couple of Islamic State vehicles carrying bodies from regime areas,” said the resident, who opposes both the Islamic State and the government of President Bashar al-Assad and works undercover inside the Islamic State. “They were full of beheaded bodies.”
Deir al-Zour, a province whose capital, also called Deir al-Zour, is under siege by the Islamic State, is one of the most remote parts of Syria, making it difficult to assess conflicting accounts that emerged over the weekend. What the accounts agreed on was that during and after bloody clashes, the Islamic State had carried out a wave of killings in the outskirts of the contested city, where, the United Nations says, the extremist forces are besieging 200,000.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/20/world/middleeast/russian-strikes-in-syria-hit-area-of-suspected-massacres.html