ISIS fighters in Raqqa were taking no chances about Russian intentions and skipped Friday prayers to avoid getting caught in mosques that might be targeted.
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Meanwhile, rebel groups reportedly hit by the airstrikes have asked the USA for antiaircraft missiles to defend against the assault.
A day later, Russian officials said Moscow is ready to provide aid to Syria.
He added: “From their [Russia’s] perspective, they’re all terrorists”.
“We are far from a resolution, but there are elements that boost our confidence that the crisis can be overcome, and the most important point is that there is now no shooting”, Russian President Vladimir Putin said ahead of the meeting on October 1. A joint statement by France, Turkey, the U.S. Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Britain expressed concern that Russia’s actions will “only fuel more extremism and radicalization”.
“We are not going to cooperate with a Russian campaign to simply try to destroy anybody who is disgusted and fed up with Mr. Assad’s behavior”, Obama said, while promising to “maintain lines of communication” on an outcome that would preserve the Syrian state and military as institutions while assuring Assad’s departure.
In the first indication of a possible time frame for Russia’s campaign, the head of the State Duma’s foreign affairs committee, Alexei Pushkov, suggested air strikes could last “three to four months”.
“They are doing this for two reasons”. “We want air support against IS”.
Michael Fallon accused Russian Federation of dropping unguided munitions on civilian areas, and against Mr Assad’s Western and Gulf-backed enemies. “At least they could give us antiaircraft missiles”, he pleaded after the explosion died down. Most fighters in the area are from the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham and other insurgent groups, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group. It bombed other forces Wednesday and Thursday before striking Islamic State targets Friday. On Monday, he used an appearance at the United Nations General Assembly in New York to call for a new “broad coalition” to fight Isil based on cooperation with the Assad regime.
In Moscow, a senior Russian diplomat said Friday that no progress had been made on a Russia-NATO hotline to defuse potential military conflicts, and that Russia would attempt to focus on bilateral “deconfliction” efforts with the United States instead.
It would be “morally wrong” not to target IS in Syria, he said, adding: “We can’t leave it to French and Australian, American aircraft to keep our own British streets safe”. Russian officials have recently stressed that Moscow will continue providing military aid, including specialists, to Damascus. It doesn’t address a potential attack by Russian planes and does not include Syrian rebels who have not been through the US military training, even though they may be aligned with the United States or IS. “The significance of Russia’s recent military activity in Syria can not be downplayed”.
“Military advisers of Iran always were and now are in Syria”, he said.
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“We believe that they’ve struck a couple of different places where ISIL is present today, both near (Islamic State headquarters in) Raqqa and Deir el Zour” in eastern Syria, the official told McClatchy.
