However, several other officials said USA agencies were behind the curve in assessing how far the Russians meant to go and how quickly they meant to launch operations.
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The observatory also reported a large explosion on the outskirts of the town of Al-Bab, which is an IS stronghold.
The Observatory says Islamic State has no real presence in these areas.
The monitor added that rebels were battling to take back a second village from the jihadist group, which is now within 10 kilometres of Aleppo city.
Rebels on the ground and Western states have said Moscow’s air campaign, which has been combined with ground attacks by pro-government forces, have mainly targeted rebel groups not associated with Islamic State, including U.S.-trained fighters.
“In contrast to CNN we do not refer to anonymous sources but we show the path of our missiles and their targets practically in real time”, Konashenkov said. There was no immediate reaction from Tehran.
The defence ministry had said earlier that 27 “terrorist” targets have been hit on Thursday. “This will have consequences for Russian Federation itself which is rightly fearful of attacks…” And Russia’s support of the Assad regime in Syria puts it in direct conflict with American interests and activities in that country.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said there had been a “troubling escalation” in Moscow’s air campaign.
But they also have very different friends, and sharply opposing views of how to resolve the four-year-old Syrian civil war, in which more than 250 000 people have been killed and more than 10 million driven from their homes. One of those groups, Liwa Suqour al-Jabal, said the Russian strikes destroyed their main weapons depot.
The Syrian government is a key ally of Russian Federation, which depends on the Mediterranean coastline for warm-water naval access. At least 13 regime fighters and 11 rebels were killed, the Observatory said.
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USA and Russian military officials have yet to establish a reliable communication channel to avoid potentially tragic accidents between Russian and U.S.-led forces operating in Syrian airspace. Among the sites attacked, it said, were command outposts in Aleppo and Idlib provinces. Hreitan is controlled by a group of Islamist rebel factions including Al-Nusra.
