Agencies, Beirut :The Russian Defense Ministry says its warplanes have launched a new wave of airstrikes on Islamic State fighters in Syria.The ministry says its jets took off earlier in the day on Wednesday from a base southwest of the Iranian capital, Tehran, to strike targets in the east of Syria. It says they destroyed two command posts and two training camps.Iran on Tuesday allowed Russian warplanes to take off from its territory to bomb targets in Syria, for the first time since Russia launched its operation in the war-torn Arab nation last year.Syria’s state-run news agency says seven civilians have been killed and nine wounded by rocket rounds fired by armed groups on a government-controlled district of the city of Aleppo.SANA says the rockets struck the Salaheddine residential district in the northern city on Wednesday.The city has been divided into a rebel-held eastern part and a government-controlled western part since 2012, and is now the focal point of the civil war.On Tuesday, nearly 20 civilians were reported killed in airstrikes in eastern districts.Meanwhile, the speaker of Iran’s parliament stressed on Wednesday that Russia does not have a permanent military base within the Islamic Republic, a day after Moscow announced launching airstrikes on Syria from Iran.The fact that Iran allowed Russian warplanes to take off from its territory to bomb targets in Syria was an unprecedented move, underscoring the deepening cooperation between two powerhouses heavily invested in the Syrian civil war.In Syria, seven civilians were killed and nine were wounded by rocket rounds fired by armed groups on a government-controlled district of the city of Aleppo, Syria’s state-run news agency said. SANA reported that the rockets struck the Salaheddine residential district in the northern city, which has been divided into a rebel-held eastern part and a government-controlled western part since 2012.Once Syria’s largest city and commercial center, Aleppo is now the focal point of the country’s ruinous civil war. On Tuesday, nearly 20 civilians were reported killed in airstrikes in the eastern, rebel-held districts.Wednesday’s comments by the Iranian official, Ali Larijani, seem geared at easing domestic concerns over the strikes. Iran’s constitution, ratified after its 1979 Islamic Revolution, bars foreign militaries from having bases within the country.In his remarks, reported by the state-run IRNA news agency, Larijani did not directly discuss the strikes, though he said Iran has “cooperated with Russia, as it is our ally on regional issues, especially on Syrian issues.””We have good cooperation with Russia and we say it loud and clear,” Larijani said.Russia’s Defense Ministry announced Tuesday that it launched the strikes from near the Iranian city of Hamedan and struck targets in three provinces in northern and eastern Syria.
