“When the Charles de Gaulle comes to the shores of Syria, joint military work will be organized”, Russian Col. Gen. Andrei Kartapolov said in a statement on Wednesday.
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Kartapolov stressed that the destruction of the convoy “greatly reduced illegal oil export capabilities of the militants and, accordingly, their income from oil smuggling.”
Moreover, the Russian Armed Forces will organize joint military operations with the French Navy to combat terrorists in Syria.
“We are aware that over the past several hours Russian Federation conducted a significant number of strikes in Raqqa, a few of which may have included sea-launched cruise missiles and long-range bombers”, said the official, who made the remarks on condition of anonymity. Meanwhile Department of Defense spokesman Peter Cook said “We are not coordinating or cooperating with the Russians in terms of targets but we are taking these important steps to make sure our pilots, and the Russian crews for that matter, do not come into conflict with one another”.
On November 17, President Vladimir Putin pledged to intensify Russia’s bombing campaign after Moscow confirmed that a bomb had brought down a Russian plane over Egypt on October 31, killing all 224 on board.
His comments come after Russian Federation on Tuesday launched airstrikes in the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa.
SU-34 aircraft destroyed two columns of fuel tankers and about 50 vehicles.
While Russians and Americans are in communication almost daily to test a direct line set up in that agreement, Warren said, Russia has not communicated with the United States on any further planned strikes though.
Figures from oil workers in Syria and Iraq along with Western intelligence estimates suggest up to 40,000 barrels are being produced every day in ISIS-held territory. On Wednesday, Russian Federation submitted an edited draft of a text initially circulated to the council on September 30. Despite the videos released by the Russian Ministry of Defense showing what are purportedly dead-on strikes against individual targets, Warren said the Russians lack precision munitions, and instead are “using dumb bombs, and their history has been both reckless and irresponsible” when it comes to choosing legitimate targets.
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France has also stepped up airstrikes in Syria and French President Francois Hollande was to visit Washington next week and later Moscow in what has been billed as an attempt to forge a consensus among the three nations on attacking ISIS, also known as ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and Daesh, an Arabic acronym).
