ALEPPO, Syria — While the Syrian regime’s air raids follow in succession, targeting residential neighborhoods in opposition-controlled areas in Aleppo, the regime is circulating news that these airstrikes are targeting Jabhat al-Nusra’s military positions in Aleppo city. Fighter jets, for instance, targeted the Seif al-Dawla neighborhood of Aleppo on July 2, killing four people and wounding others.

According to Brett McGurk, the US representative to the anti-Islamic State coalition, these raids are carried out against residential neighborhoods, field hospitals and civil defense stations in the city. He told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on June 28 that the Syrian regime’s air force is a “criminal enterprise” dropping barrel bombs on civilians, while pretending that it is attacking Jabhat al-Nusra. He said that if the regime continues to target civilians, a favorable environment for terrorist organizations will be generated.

The presence of Jabhat al-Nusra in Aleppo province is limited compared with its presence in the city of Idlib and the Idlib countryside, which are Jabhat al-Nusra’s stronghold in Syria. The regime’s air raids are largely focused on the opposition-controlled residential neighborhoods in Aleppo city.

The Syrian Human Rights Committee (SHRC) documented, in a report published July 1, the deaths of 1,748 people in June, including 797 people in Aleppo province. On July 2, the SHRC reported that 49 attacks occurred in June, out of which the regime was responsible for 31. It said that 24 out of the 49 attacks took place in Aleppo province.