But USA officials said the attack was not directed at the Islamic State but at other opposition groups fighting against the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, whom Putin has vowed to support.
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“A real and thorough fight against terrorism, which is a common threat to regional and global peace and stability, is necessary”, Afkham said in a statement.
The airstrikes drew sharp rebuke from the United States and further raised tensions in the region.
Two Russian airstrikes in Syria on Thursday hit a training camp operated by rebel group that received military training from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, its commander said.
A Kremlin spokesman said the Syrian air strikes target a “list of well-known terrorist organisations agreed with Syrian military”.
“These organizations are well known and the targets are chosen in co-ordination with the armed forces of Syria“, he said, without giving specific names.
Fiorina, formerly CEO of Hewlett-Packard, additionally disputed Russia’s claims that it is fighting ISIS rather than anti-Assad forces in Syria.
“The rumours that the target of these air strikes was not IS positions are unfounded”, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists in New York on Thursday (local time) after meeting his United States counterpart, John Kerry.
Putin is seeking to muscle his way back onto the world stage after months of Western isolation following Russia’s seizure of Crimea from Ukraine and support for a separatist insurgency in the east of the ex-Soviet country.
Lavrov highlighted the need to “establish channels of communications to avoid any unintended incidents”.
Russian lawmakers voted unanimously Wednesday to allow Putin to order airstrikes in Syria, where Russia has deployed fighter jets and other weapons in recent weeks.
While the US has insisted both Assad and ISIS must be removed from power as part of a solution to the Syrian crisis, Russian Federation has insisted that Assad is critical in the fight against extremism.
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Footage provided by Homs Media Centre (Picture: AP)A picture uploaded by the Syria Civil Defence search and rescue group (Picture: AP)A shot from inside a building that was hit (Picture: AP)Volunteer search and rescue group, shows the aftermath of a Russian airstrike in Talbiseh, Syria.
