Russian Federation began air strikes in Syria a week ago in a campaign that has raised tensions with Turkey, which accuses Moscow of violating its airspace on at least two occasions.
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APPHOTO MOSB106: In this photo made from the footage taken from Russian Defense Ministry official web site, Wednesday, October 7, 2015, a Russian navy ship launches a cruise missile in the Caspian Sea.
The Kalibr supersonic cruise missile was deployed this summer after seven years of testing and development.
“This time after reading it, we didn’t feel anything”, he said.
A military spokesman told Russian news wires that the strikes from the warships had hit positions of IS and Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front. Shoigu also said Russian Federation has carried out 112 airstrikes on IS positions since September 30.
The cruise missiles flew over the Caucasus Mountains, Iran and Iraq before veering toward Islamic State held areas in the western portion of Syria, shocking military analysts as the weapons systems used were not previously thought to have such long range capability.
State television said government forces had targeted IS militants at the Sha’ar gas field and village of Qaryatain in Homs province, as well as Atshan, a town to the east of Russian air force bombardments in Hama province on Wednesday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group tracking Syria’s civil war, said the Palmyra strikes killed 15 Islamic State fighters.
“We will not make any concessions in the context of our border and airspace security”, Davutoglu said. Iran has been bolstering Assad by sending weapons and advisers, and helping arrange the deployment of Shiite fighters from Iraq and Hezbollah, as well as sending financial aid.
He says that while the Russians say they are attacking Islamic State extremists, anyone looking at a map of their strikes can see that most “are against what we consider the moderate opposition to Assad, the very people that we need to be part of the future of Syria”. Rebels have been advancing there in the past months, but the Islamic State group is not present in the areas where the fighting is taking place.
“The government has been relying heavily on an untrustworthy ally, which is the United States, and this fault should be fixed”.
The observatory, which has a network of activists on the ground, said the main launching point for government forces is the town of Morek on the highway that links the capital, Damascus, with the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and former commercial centre.
In Syria, the leader of a U.S.-backed rebel group, Tajammu Alezzah confirmed the ground offensive in a text message to the media, claiming there were Russian and Iranian soldiers in the operation.
The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said rebels were able to destroy two tanks and an armored personnel carrier in northern Hama province near Idlib.
However, speaking an opposite view, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told reporters in Rome, that the Russian campaign of airstrikes in Syria is a “fundamental mistake”.
The Observatory said 37 Russian air raids hit on Wednesday alone.
In Moscow, Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said Russia is using warships in the Caspian Sea to target IS in Syria.
Senior regional sources say he has already been overseeing ground operations against insurgents in Syria and is now at the heart of planning for the new Russian- and Iranian-backed offensive.
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The new Russian strikes were accompanied for the first time by a Syrian army ground operation that prompted fierce clashes with rebels in the central province of Hama, a monitoring group said.
