Tehran made no comment.
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A Facebook post Thursday by the Russian Defense Ministry noted, “No matter how unpleasant and unexpected it is for our colleagues in the Pentagon and Langley [CIA headquarters], our strike yesterday with precision-guided weapons at [IS] infrastructure in Syria hit its targets”.
Russian Federation said its warplanes flew 22 sorties and carried out 11 air strikes on Islamic State training facilities in Hama and Raqqa provinces.
With the USA leading an alliance waging its own air war against Islamic State fighters, the Cold War superpower foes, Washington and Moscow, are now engaged in combat over the same country for the first time since the Second World War.
It’s interested in attacking the enemies of the Assad regime, and trying to prop up that regime. The Syrian army has launched an offensive this week in central and northwestern Syria aided by Russian airstrikes.
One official said the USA wasn’t able to detect any casualties or damage from the errant strikes, suggesting they may have fallen harmlessly in Iran.
Reuters reported last week that the Obama administration was considering extending support to thousands of Syrian rebel fighters, possibly with arms and air strikes, as part of the revamped approach to Syria.
“They shot cruise missiles from the Caspian sea without warning”, Carter said after North Atlantic Treaty Organisation defense talks in Brussels. Carter said Russian aircraft came within a few miles of a USA drone.
The United States on Friday started to withdraw its Patriot missile batteries from Turkey, despite Russia’s weekend incursions into Ankara’s airspace amid a deepening crisis in Syria.
“Brigader General Hamedani was martyred by Daesh terrorists during an advisory mission in the outskirts of Aleppo” on Thursday afternoon, said the terse statement read on IRNA, using an Arabic acronym for the group.
Meanwhile, Turkish papers are unhappy with Russian incursions into their airspace, with HaberTurk quoting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying: “I will not call Putin again”.
The Melkite Greek Catholic archbishop of Aleppo Jean-Clement Jeanbart on Thursday welcomed Moscow’s intervention, which he told Swiss television “serves the Christians’ cause”.
He added: “Today, the Syrian Arab armed forces began a wide ranging attack with the aim of eliminating the terrorists groups and liberating the areas and towns that suffered from their scourge and crimes”.
The group also seized a former army base known as the Infantry Academy that rebels captured from the Syrian army two years ago.
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The Syrian government is a key ally of Russian Federation, which depends on the Mediterranean coastline for warm-water naval access.
