The Russian defence ministry said on Friday that it had bombed seven targets in Syria in overnight air raids, including a command post and a training camp near the northwestern city of Raqqa.
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Hundreds of Iranian troops have arrived in Syria to join a major ground offensive in support of President Bashar al-Assad’s government, Lebanese sources said yesterday, a sign the civil war is turning still more regional and global in scope. Russian Federation has a permanent resupply facility at the naval port in Tartus, further south of the airfield. “Our vision proved to be correct”, Mr Moallem said. “Local authorities are supporting us by supplying the base with fruit and vegetables”.
According to the Associated Press, Hollande told reporters, “Russia has always been involved in Syria”.
Obama, who met Putin at the United Nations earlier this week, said he was willing to work with Moscow to broker a political solution that involved the Syrian president stepping down, but would not cooperate with a Russian campaign that targets the moderate opposition.
Alexei Pushkov, the head of the foreign affairs committee in Russia’s parliament, added that the USA had only “pretended” to bomb IS and promised that Russia’s campaign would be much more effective.
The use of such indiscriminate targeting could kill innocent civilians, which could have the unintended outcome of creating more terrorists than they kill, he said.
In an interview with the Sun, he said initial Ministry of Defence intelligence suggested only one in 20 Russian airstrikes so far were targeting Isis.
Idlib province is controlled by a coalition of rebel groups – including the Nusra Front, a terror group linked to al Qaeda.
“The Russians were very clear publicly that they were going to strike ISIL”, said Steve Warren, spokesman for the US-led counter-IS military campaign Operation Inherent Resolve.
Obama said that people like the pope, who make “us uncomfortable in his gentle way – make him want to “be better” and “do better”.
Samir al-Nashar, a member of the Western-backed Syrian opposition National Coalition, told dpa that the strikes hit the town of Jisr al-Shoghur in the north-western province of Idlib and the central province of Hama.
Russian jets made their first strikes in Syria on Wednesday, and quickly faced complaints about its targets. “Airstrikes are useless unless they are conducted in cooperation with the Syrian army, the only force in Syria that is combating terrorism”.
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The West has raised concerns that Russian forces were also striking at rebel groups opposed to Assad, in a bid to bolster its ally.
