The BBC’s Steve Rosenberg in Moscow says that in the Russian Defence Ministry video soldiers can be seen writing messages on the bombs before loading them onto the aircraft – phrases like: “This is revenge for our dead” and “This is for Paris”. Officials at the airport in the Lebanese capital of Beirut said the airport will close for three days as of Friday midnight due to Russian military drills in the Mediterranean Sea.
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Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu said 18 long-range missiles were launched on seven IS targets in the Raqqa, Idlib and Aleppo provinces on 20 November.
The Russians released video of their ships firing cruise missiles toward ISIS targets in Syria, and that video can be viewed above, on this page, courtesy of The Guardian newspaper.
Iraq’s civil aviation authority said in a statement that flight suspensions were made “to protect travelers and because of the crossing of cruise missiles and bombers in the northern part of Iraq launched from the Caspian Sea”. The Defense Ministry went on to say that Russian armed forces are carrying out the campaign as vengeance for the vicious attacks in Paris and the bombing of the Russian plane over the Sinai, which have since been claimed by ISIS.
Russian warplanes have flown 522 sorties and destroyed over 800 targets over the last four days, according to Shoigu.
“During the combat operations, 562 control points, 64 terrorist training camps, 64 arms and ammunition production facilities and other objectives have been destroyed”, the chief of the Russian General Staff said.
Russian Federation began bombing in Syria in September at the request of its longstanding ally President Bashar al-Assad.
French President Francois Hollande is expected to meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow on Thursday to discuss counter-terror cooperation. He said this deprived ISIS of United States dollars 1.5 million in daily income from oil sales.
Moscow has stepped up its strikes in Syria with long-distance bombers after confirming for the first time on Tuesday that a bomb downed a Russian airliner in Egypt last month.
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The UN Security Council on Friday backed a French-drafted measure calling on member states to “take all necessary measures” to fight Daesh, a week after the Paris attack.
