Russia’s military said it was continuing to use its drones over Syrian territory, despite suspicions that one was downed by Turkey on Friday.
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Turkey is still investigating where the drone, which reportedly veered two miles into Turkish air space, shot down on Friday came from. “That is the basis we are working on”, he said.
Seeking to underline the dangers, US officials said four Russian cruise missiles fired from a warship in the Caspian Sea had crashed in Iran, which drew a swift denial from Russia.
“I state with absolute responsibility that all our drones are either performing tasks or staying at the base”, Col.-Gen.
RB: The Russian military has entered the war at the request of the Syrian government.
Three senior Nusra members, one of them a US-designated “global terrorist”, were killed in an air strike in Aleppo province on Thursday, a monitoring group said.
In another development on Saturday, Syrian government forces edged forward in the northern province of Aleppo with air cover from Russian warplanes, but faced fierce resistance from rebel forces in the country’s centre.
The front lines there and in the surrounding countryside have always been static.
Russian Federation began its air campaign September 30, and Syrian troops and allied militiamen launched a ground offensive in central Syria week later.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says regime troops seized at least five villages and several strategic hilltops yesterday, bringing them to the edges of Al-Hader, just south of Aleppo city. The Local Coordination Committees, an activist network that follows the war, put the number at 57.
Earnest said then that the USA priority was to contain the Islamic State: “Countering Russia’s involvement in Syria doesn’t rate almost as high on the scale”. “Dozens of control facilities and ammunition depots, hundreds of terrorists and a large number of weapons have been destroyed”, he said.
If, on the other hand, Russian Federation helps Assad find a way to a political solution as well as fight Daesh (Islamic State) and extremism, there is the possibility of a very different path, he said.
Russian jets have flown 669 sorties since the start of the air campaign, including 394 this week, said Kartapolov, the Russian general.
“The others in the coalition have been striking at these targets, they would like us to take part but we don’t yet have parliamentary authority to do so”. The US believes the Iranian forces are playing a supporting role for the Russians and Syrians but that that does not rule out front-line fighting.
“The Pentagon may say whatever it wants”, he told the daily Komsomolskaya Pravda. Hezbollah’s long-range missiles target Israel’s people, her ports, her navy, and its gas installations.
Australian reporting. But the Russians have installed total air defence with sophisticated SA-22s covering much of Syria’s airspace.
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The Russian defense ministry said all its drones had safely returned to base in Syria after combat missions.
