Putin hailed the military’s performance, but added that “there is still a lot of work to do…to rid Syria of militants and terrorists and protect Russian Federation from possible terror attacks”.
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United States officials said last month four missiles launched from Russian warships in the Caspian Sea had crashed in Iran, but Moscow insisted they had reached their targets in Syria. The pair also discussed the need for talks between Damascus and the Syrian opposition, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Yesterday Russian president Vladmir Putin confirmed it was an Islamic State bomb which brought down the doomed Russian passenger jet.
From the Caspian Sea, rocket ships of the Russian Caspian Flotilla on Friday dealt a massive blow by launching 18 cruise missiles complex Caliber-NK 7 toward terrorist targets in the Syrian provinces of Raqqa, Aleppo and Idlib.
Russia’s bombing blitz this week by warplanes and cruise missiles from navy ships destroyed 15 oil refining and storage facilities in Syria and 525 trucks carrying oil, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Friday.
The strike came after Russian television showed a man scrawling “For our people!” and “For Paris!” in black pen on bombs minutes before a warplane was set to take off from the country’s air base in Syria.
The public message of support for the French capital, where an Islamic State-coordinated attack killed at least 129 people last Friday, comes as Moscow attempts to find common ground with the Western powers in the fight against the extremist group.
“According to objective control data, the number of terrorists arriving in Syria is declining, and the flow of militants leaving areas of combat operation is growing in the northern and south-western directions”, the Russian Defense Minister said.
“Over the past 48 days, the Russian air grouping has performed 2,289 sorties and delivered 4,111 missile and bomb strikes against major infrastructure facilities and the concentrations of the militants’ armor and personnel”, he said.
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The Turkish government is vehemently opposed to President Assad, while Russian Federation says its air campaign is justified because Mr Assad has requested it.
