Europe

MOSCOW, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Syrian government troops covered by Russian warplanes on Thursday repelled several massive attacks of militants supported by Turkey in Syria's Idlib, according to the Russian military.

Militants supported by artillery fire of the Turkish Armed Forces managed to break through the defense of the Syrian army, the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Warring Parties in Syria said in a statement.

BERLIN (AP) — He mixed extreme paranoia about secret state surveillance with far-right conspiracy tropes, misogyny and racist vitriol.

The gunman who killed nine people in the Frankfurt suburb of Hanau left behind a 24-page rambling screed calling for the “complete extermination” of races he considered inferior; a video blending far-right diatribes, delusional musings and an infamous quote by Adolf Hitler; and an English-language video statement that echoes themes of child sacrifices and disdain for mainstream media found in the QAnon conspiracy theory.

HANAU, Germany (AP) — A German who shot and killed nine people of foreign background in a rampage that began at a hookah bar frequented by immigrants had posted an online rant calling for the “complete extermination” of many “races or cultures in our midst,” authorities said Thursday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the attack exposed the “poison” of racism in the country.

The gunman, Tobias Rathjen, 43, was found dead at his home along with his mother, and authorities said they were treating the rampage as an act of domestic terrorism.

VIENNA, February 20. /TASS/: Head of the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (PA OSCE), Deputy Speaker of the Russian State Duma (lower chamber of parliament) Pyotr Tolstoy on Thursday handed the declaration on inadmissibility of revision of Second World War results to deputy head of the US Congress delegation, Republican Senator Roger Wicker to study.

MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/: The new military mission on Libyan arms embargo supervision, with which the EU wants to replace its ongoing Operation Sophia, must be agreed upon with the UN Security Council, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday.

MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov plans to take part in the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session on February 24-25 in Geneva, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during Thursday’s briefing.

"On February 24-25, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov plans to visit Geneva to take part in the high-level 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council and to address the Disarmament Conference," she stated.

MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/: Work on preparations for the Russian-Turkish-Iranian summit on the Syrian settlement process is in progress, while its date is yet to be agreed on, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"Indeed, negotiations on that score with the Iranian side have been held. Work on that summit is in progress. There is Russia’s consent for certain dates," he commented. "However, you do know that the three presidential schedules are yet to be agreed on. This coordination is not over yet. As soon as and if that is done, we will inform everyone."

MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/: Tank crews of Russia’s 201st military base eliminated a notional enemy during drills in the mountains of Tajikistan, the press office of the Central Military District reported on Thursday.

"During the drills, the troops performed a 40-km march from their permanent base to the area of the Lyaur mountainous training range. The crews acted within their units to practice the tasks of positional defense, an offensive from the depth and organizing a tank ambush," the press office said in a statement.

MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin is grateful to Washington for providing data that enabled Russia to prevent a terrorist attack in late 2019, pledging that Moscow would help Washington fight against terrorism.

MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/: A Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with a Meridian-M military communications satellite has blasted off from the Plesetsk spaceport, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Thursday.

"At 11:24 a.m. Moscow time on Thursday, February 20, a combat team of the Aerospace Force’s Space Troops successfully launched a Soyuz-2.1a medium carrier rocket with a Meridian-M satellite from launch pad No. 3 of site No. 43 at the Defense Ministry’s State Testing Cosmodrome (the Plesetsk spaceport in the Arkhangelsk Region)," the ministry said in a statement.