‘IS releases 270 of 400 civilians abducted in east Syria’

The Islamic State (IS) group released 270 out of 400 people it had kidnapped, when its militants stormed a town in the countryside of Syria’s eastern province of Deir al-Zour earlier this week, a monitor group reported on Wednesday.

“Crews of Su-25 aircrafts from the Russian Air Force and MiG-29 planes of the Syrian Air Force carried out a joint military mission over Syria”, Syrian Arab news agency, Sana cited Russian Defense Ministry as saying in a statement last Thursday.

Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said: “Over the past four days Russian aviation has conducted 157 combat missions hitting 579 terrorist targets in the Syrian provinces of Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor, Homs, Hama, Raqqa and Latakia”.

Fighting in Deir Ezzor intensified recently, including suicide bombings, mass abductions and arbitrary killings, rights activists have said.

 Russian Federation officially entered the Syrian Civil War in late September previous year at the official request of the Syrian government, a longtime ally.

“The inhabitants are gradually coming back to Syrian cities and peaceful life is returning…in this context, the implementation of humanitarian operations will be a new line of work for the Russian armed forces in Syria”, said General Sergei Rudskoi, a senior Russian General Staff official.

The United Nations says there are some 450,000 people trapped in around 15 siege locations across Syria, including in areas controlled by the government, Islamic State and other insurgent groups. IS cut off access to the city in January 2015.