Russia’s air force has delivered over 4,000 missile and bomb strikes against terrorist facilities since the start of its operation in Syria, Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov said on November 17.
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The coalition has been bombing Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria for more than a year separately from the Russian campaign. Since Monday, Russian bombers have dropped 1,400 tons of bombs, while all Russian aircraft have flown 522 sorties.
Video footage and a photo posted to the UK Russian Embassy’s Twitter show soldiers inscribing missiles destined for Syria with messages such as “For Paris” and “For Ours”.
Russian Federation began a large-scale bombing campaign against targets in Syria Sept. 30, which Moscow says is focused on Islamic State militants but critics allege targets a wider band of opponents of Moscow’s ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Putin has long backed Assad, while the United States wants to see the Syrian dictator deposed.
ISIS reportedly makes millions of dollars in revenue from oil fields under its control, and the coalition has regularly targeted oil infrastructure held by the group.
After the carnage in Paris which claimed the lives of 130 people Putin and French President Francois Hollande agreed to “ensure closer contact and coordination” in their countries’ operations in Syria. But whether he was genuinely honest in that promise has not yet been clear.
He added that a strike with multiple cruise missiles in the province of Deir ez-Zor had killed more than 600 militants. He said that was misplaced because Paris had not sought approval from the Syrian government.
They have destroyed 26 command centres, 35 depots, 28 fortified sites, three training camps, eight explosive factories and 86 heavy weapon factories.
The strikes ordered by Vladimir Putin hit seven targets in the Syrian provinces of Raqqa, Aleppo and Idlib.
Sulaimaniyah airport director Tahir Abdullah said the decision was taken “because of the intensification of Russian missile attacks on Daesh strongholds in Syria”, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State jihadist group.
Russian Federation began airstrikes on Daesh in September 2015, in support of Syrian President Assad.
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The Russian warplanes destroyed 15 oil refining and storage facilities in Syria and 525 trucks carrying oil during this week’s bombardment.
