\n More than 40 of Syria's most powerful rebel factions said on Monday that Russia's air campaign had made a political solution to the country's bloody conflict impossible.\n<\/p>\n
\n In a statement posted online, 41 groups including Jaish al-Islam near Damascus, Ahrar al-Sham in northwest Syria, and the Northern Front said that Russia's \"brutal occupation has cut the road to any political solution\".\n<\/p>\n
\n The statement also urged the creation of a regional coalition to combat both the Syrian regime and its allies Iran and Russia.\n<\/p>\n
\n Russian warplanes have been flying over Syrian territory since Wednesday, conducting air strikes on what Moscow says are Islamic State group targets in the northern and central provinces.\n<\/p>\n
\n Although some of the raids have struck IS bastions in Raqa and Homs provinces, many have hit bases held by other rebel and Islamist groups.\n<\/p>\n
\n Some of the statement's signatories, like Ahrar al-Sham and Jaish al-Izzah, have been targeted by Russian strikes.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Russia jumped in to rescue the Assad regime after it was clinically dead, in order to prevent it from suffering a sweeping defeat,\" the statement read.\n<\/p>\n
\n It accused Russia of killing at least 50 civilians in Homs province \"in Russia's first war crime on Syrian territory\".\n<\/p>\n
\n The statement also called for an international coalition to help fight back at the Syrian regime and its two steadfast allies, Iran and Russia.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"This new reality makes it imperative that regional countries, and allies in particular, hasten to form a regional alliance in the face of the Russian-Iranian alliance of occupation,\" the groups wrote.\n<\/p>\n
\n It followed a statement at the weekend by many of the same rebel groups and the opposition National Coalition \"rejecting Russia's direct military escalation in Syria\".\n<\/p>\n
\n \"This escalation undoubtedly proves that Russia was not serious or genuine in its commitment to a political process, and that it cannot be an impartial intermediary because it is party to the conflict.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Syria's conflict began as an uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, but has transformed into a multi-party civil war with Kurds, the regime, rebels and jihadists carving out zones of influence.\n<\/p>\n
\n Russia and Iran have provided substantial financial and military aid to Damascus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More than 40 of Syria's most powerful rebel factions said on Monday that Russia's air campaign had made a political solution to the country's bloody conflict impossible. In a statement posted online, 41 groups including Jaish al-Islam near Damascus, Ahrar al-Sham in northwest Syria, and the Northern Front said that Russia's \"brutal occupation has cut […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-2352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n