LIVE UPDATES: The previous post in our Putin in Syria column can be found here.
As Russian bombers began conducting strikes from Iran’s Hamedan airbase, there are reports of heavy civilian casualties.
The Russian Ministry of Defense today released video footage, apparently filmed from the cockpit of a Sukhoi Flanker-series fighter, showing Tupolev Tu-22M3 bombers, purportedly releasing bombs over Syria:
The state-owned RT channel reported that the bombers struck targets in the Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor and Idlib provinces.
The Syrian Local Coordination Committees (LCC) report that at least ten civilians were killed when Russian bombs struck the Nour bakery in Deir ez-Zor.
It is unclear whether the casualties reported were inflicted by the Tu-22M3s operating out of Iran, or jets flying from the Hmeemeem airbase in Latakia.
In Aleppo, there are reports of terrible casualties when Russian jets struck a bus carrying civilians trying to leave the city near Ramouseh, in the southwest.
In the east of the city, in rebel-held Tariq Bab, the LCC report that at least 15 civilians were killed.
There are also unconfirmed reports from last night that incendiary bombs were dropped on the Zubdiya neighbourhood, where regime helicopters dropped chlorine gas last week.
In the Idlib town of Saraqib, where the Russian Ministry of Defense boasted today that their Tu-22M3s bombed an ammunition depot, the LCC report that cluster bombs were dropped on the eastern suburbs.
Regime jets also struck Binnish, near Idlib city:
Syrian regime forces are also reported to have targeted the town with ground-launched rockets, inflicting casualties on civilians.
Compounding the misery, ISIS are reported to have used chemical weapons in an attack on rebel-held Marea, north of Aleppo:
The LCC report “several suffocation cases.” The nature of the chemical used has not yet been ascertained.
The US reports that Islamic State terrorists were not in the vicinity of where Russian bombs fell. Voice of America’s Jeff Seldin reports: