RUSSIAN Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov declared yesterday that no Russian or any other aircraft had flown over the northern Syrian refugee camp where 28 people were killed on Thursday.
Mr Konashenkov said in Moscow that the Russian military had studied airspace monitoring data and determined that no plane had passed over the Sarmada camp on Wednesday or Thursday.
He added that the destruction seen in photos and videos suggested the camp could have been shelled, intentionally or not, by multiple rocket launchers that the Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s Syrian affiliate, has been using in the area.
VIJAY PRASHAD looks at the web of militias and drug-trafficking gangs that emerged in the Sweida region through the Syrian civil war, and how they relate to recent clashes and Israel’s intervention


