On Thursday, activists on the ground in Syria reported that the death toll over the last three bloody days in the northeastern city of Aleppo has risen to 65, after a dozen overnight airstrikes killed 11 people in rebel-held neighborhoods. The day before, an air raid was carried out on eastern Aleppo’s biggest market, killing at least 15 people and destroying the surrounding buildings. In government-controlled areas of the city, rebel shelling killed two young girls while they were in school.
Additionally, two Iraqi militia commanders said Thursday that they have begun to withdraw elite forces from Syria, where they are supporting the Assad government in alliance with Russian and Iranian forces, to Iraq “in preparation for the battle to retake the city of Mosul from the Islamic State group.”
On Saturday, Secretary of State John Kerry will be meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrav in Switzerland to continue Syria talks. The meeting will be the two diplomats’ first in-person meeting since the United States suspended diplomatic talks with Moscow last Monday. At that time, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said that “everybody’s patience with Russia has run out,” and that there was “nothing more for the U.S. and Russia to discuss.”
(Via ABC News)