Russia says it killed 88,000 Syria rebels in three years

Russia's defence minister yesterday said that almost 88,000 rebels had been killed in Syria in the three years since Moscow's intervention to back government forces.

"Over the course of the operation, a total of more than 87,500 rebels have been eliminated, 1,411 settlements have been liberated and more than 95 percent of Syria's territory," Shoigu was quoted as saying at a forum in Singapore in a ministry statement.

"Most of the rebels have been liquidated," Shoigu said.

Russia launched strikes in support of President Bashar al-Assad's regime in September 2015. Russian air forces have carried out more than 40,000 bombing missions, hitting about 120,000 targets of "terrorist" infrastructure, Shoigu said.

The defence minister said that "Syrian armed forces currently control territory where more than 90 percent of the population lives."

Meanwhile, an offensive by US-backed forces against the Islamic State group's last redoubt in eastern Syria killed 35 jihadists yesterday, a Britain-based war monitor said.

Twenty-eight IS members were killed in air strikes by the US-led coalition around the town of Hajin, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

And a further seven jihadists were killed in ground fighting with the Syrian Democratic Forces, who launched a coalition-backed offensive against the IS-held pocket in the Euphrates valley last month.

On Friday, air strikes by the US-led coalition in eastern Syria killed at least 32 civilians in less than 24 hours, the observatory said.

Since 2014 the US-led coalition has acknowledged direct responsibility for more than 1,100 civilian deaths in Syria and Iraq, but rights groups put the number killed much higher.