BEIRUT -- Russian missiles pounded opposition targets in Syria on Tuesday, the start of a much-anticipated offensive, and activists reported the resumption of bombing in rebel-held neighborhoods of Aleppo for the first time in nearly a month, apparently by Syrian government warplanes.
The Russian blitz began hours after President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump discussed Syria in a phone call and agreed on the need to combine efforts in the fight against what the Kremlin called their No. 1 enemy -- "international terrorism and extremism."
Russia said its offensive, using long-range missiles and its carrier-borne jets for the first time on opposition areas in Syria, focused on rebel-held northern Idlib province and parts of the central province of Homs. It didn't mention the besieged eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo.
Months of negotiations between Moscow and President Barack Obama's administration have failed to cement a long-term cease-fire in Aleppo, which has become the focus of the war between Syrian President Bashar Assad and rebels fighting to topple him, some of whom receive U.S. aid. Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, the militant group formerly known as the Nusra Front, is fighting alongside the rebels, but the Islamic State militant group has no presence in Aleppo.
The Obama administration has been aiding what it sees as moderate opponents of Assad, while continuing the fight against Jabhat Fatah al-Sham. Russia describes all rebel groups as "terrorists," and Trump's blanket statements about joining Russia have been seen in Moscow as tacitly supporting this view.
Trump's comments concerning Syria also received a favorable reaction Tuesday from the United Nations' special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura. "What he's been saying is quite interesting," de Mistura said, speaking on the BBC's Hardtalk program. "The focus, the priority, is Daesh, fighting terrorism," de Mistura said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. "Second to do, if possible, a deal with Russia."
"Both points make a lot of sense," he said.
The diplomat said he had yet to speak directly to Trump or his associates. He also emphasized that in his view, the Syria conflict still required "a completely new approach to what is a political solution."
In announcing the start of what he called "a major operation," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russia would target positions of the Islamic State and Jabhat Fatah al-Sham in Idlib and Homs provinces.
Appearing alongside Putin, Shoigu said Su-33 jets from the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov were involved in the operation, marking the carrier's combat debut in Syria. A Russian navy frigate was launching long-range Kalibr cruise missiles at militant targets, he said.
On Monday, a Russian fighter jet crashed off the Syrian coast as it tried to return to the Admiral Kuznetsov. The pilot ejected safely, and the Russian Defense Ministry blamed a technical failure.
The Russian strikes were aimed at ammunition depots, training camps and armaments factories, Shoigu said, adding that before launching the attacks, military intelligence had thoroughly identified and selected targets, including factories producing toxic chemical agents.
"It's a well-developed, industrial-scale production," he said, adding that the strikes will continue.
The Russian military said chemical weapons used by insurgents had caused three deaths of Syrian soldiers and the hospitalization of dozens of others.
The Russian claims could not be independently verified.
In August, a team of international inspectors determined that the Syrian government and Islamic State militants were responsible for chemical attacks carried out in 2014 and 2015. Syria denied the findings and, in turn, has claimed that rebel forces and militants have waged chemical attacks.
Four towns in Idlib province were hit by strikes, an official with the Nour al-Din al-Zenki rebel group said.
U.S. State Department spokesman Elizabeth Trudeau criticized Russia for launching the strikes and failing to facilitate aid deliveries to opposition-held areas of Aleppo.
"We strongly condemn the resumption of airstrikes in Syria by the Russians as well as the Syrian regime," she told reporters in Washington. "We've consistently pushed for the provision of humanitarian aid to these civilians suffering under siege. Instead of joining us constructively to reach that goal, Russia again has backed the Assad regime in their ruthless war against the Syrian people."
Aleppo reports
Trudeau also condemned reports of attacks on hospitals and a mobile clinic in Syria, saying Washington believes they are a violation of international law.
Hours before the start of the Russian offensive Tuesday, opposition groups said at least three hospitals in rural parts of Aleppo province controlled by the rebels were knocked out of service after direct airstrikes.
Russian Defense Ministry Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov denied any airstrikes on hospitals or any other target in Aleppo, calling the allegations and the "public rhetoric by the State Department ... blatant lies."
"The Russian and Syrian air forces haven't conducted any strikes on Aleppo for 28 days," Konashenkov said.
An independent monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, confirmed that several airstrikes hit eastern parts of the city on Tuesday.
The Observatory said it could not immediately determine whether the strikes in Aleppo province had been carried out by Russian or Syrian planes.
Opposition activists said strikes Tuesday on opposition-held areas of Aleppo included helicopter-borne barrel bombs like the ones used by the Syrian government in the past, and they targeted multiple neighborhoods throughout the day.
"People are scared. The bombardment is intense," activist Baraa al-Halaby, who is based in eastern Aleppo, said by text message.
Ibrahim al-Haj of the Syrian Civil Defense in Aleppo city said in the late afternoon that his group had counted 72 air raids in nine neighborhoods of eastern Aleppo. Initial reports said at least seven people were killed and 32 were wounded in attacks that mostly hit residential areas in the besieged city, he said. Sounds of warplanes flying at low altitude could be heard over the phone as he spoke.
A resident of rebel-held eastern Aleppo reported more Syrian ground troops were being deployed on the city's edge, and he said he feared that a major ground operation was looming. Some 275,000 residents are estimated to be trapped in that part of Aleppo.
"There is real preparation [for an offensive] now," Wissam Zarqa, an English teacher, said by telephone.
Meanwhile, a reporter for Syrian state TV, speaking from government-held western Aleppo, said Syrian troops were preparing to attack eastern parts of the city from nine directions.
Four weeks ago, Russia said it would halt weeks of deadly airstrikes to allow rebels and supporters to leave eastern Aleppo. The rebels refused to take up the offer, and the United Nations failed to negotiate the delivery of aid into the besieged area. No aid has entered the area since July, and the U.N. and aid groups have warned of depleting supplies.
Russia has promised an all-out offensive to retake Aleppo, giving fighters and civilians a sunset deadline earlier this month to leave rebel-held districts.
For 15 days, the city had waited, watching as warplanes streaked overhead, only to drop their loads on the western countryside instead.
Besides the reported strikes on hospitals in Aleppo province on Tuesday, the U.S.-based Physicians for Human Rights said another hospital east of the city of Idlib was hit by an airstrike Sunday.
The group said it has recorded 382 attacks on medical facilities and hospitals throughout Syria since the country's conflict started in 2011. Of those, 293 were carried out by government forces and 16 were by Russian warplanes, it said.
Information for this article was contributed by Sarah El Deeb, Vladimir Isachenkov, Nataliya Vasilyeva, Albert Aji, Bassem Mroue and Matthew Lee of The Associated Press; by Louisa Loveluck, David Filipov and Heba Habib of The Washington Post; by Anne Barnard, Ivan Nechepurenko, Neil MacFarquhar, Hwaida Saad, Maher Samaan, Sewell Chan and Rick Gladstone of The New York Times; and by Weedah Hamzah and Peter Spinella of Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
A Section on 11/16/2016