Syria bombardment from all sides: Seven from US, 200 from Assad

In New York, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned against purely focusing on the military dimensions of the conflict.

OCTOBER 21, 2014 22:27

Bashar Al-Assad (photo credit: REUTERS) — Bashar Al-Assad

(photo credit: REUTERS)

WASHINGTON – More bombs have been dropped on Syria in the last 36 hours than at any point since the battle for Aleppo last year, independent monitors say.

The United States continued targeting Islamic State assets in the northern city of Kobani on Tuesday with four precise bombings, following three on Sunday, as embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad dropped at least 210 bombs across the east, north and west of the country.

The US enemy in Syria is targeted: Islamic State and other branches or spin-offs of the al-Qaida terrorist franchise.

The US has conducted over 150 strikes targeting Islamic State around the city of Kobani, a strategic Kurdish refuge town bordering Turkey, since its campaign began last month.

But from the other side of this multifaceted war, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that Assad’s air raids against rebel fighters included barrel bombs, carrying shrapnel and without any precision or positioning mechanism.

In New York, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned against purely focusing on the military dimensions of the conflict.

The Syrian war will require a political solution, he said.

“A purely military response to the vicious new threat posed by [Islamic State] could ultimately contribute to the radicalization of other Sunni armed groups,” Ban said, “and spark a cycle of renewed violence.”

Meanwhile, in Iraq 12 people were killed in Baghdad’s northern Talibiya district when a car bomb blew up directly in front of a restaurant and another in the parking lot.

A homemade bomb exploded close to a restaurant in Baghdad’s Sheikh Omar neighborhood, killing two civilians, and two more blasts near restaurants in the south of the capital left a further seven people dead, police and medical sources said.

Hosting the newly elected Iraqi prime minister, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that Iran will stand by its neighbor through its hard slog against Islamic State.

Iran will “remain on the path until the last day” alongside Iraq, Rouhani said, according to state-run media.

Reuters contributed to this report.