Syrian President Bashar Assad said in remarks published Sunday that his forces are advancing on “almost” all fronts thanks to Russian airstrikes.
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Main efforts were concentrated on undermining the finance and economic capacity of the IS, which would prevent daily supplies of 60,000 tons of oil worth 1.5 million US dollars flowing to the black market, the statement added.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Russian warplanes conducted air raids in the Idlib, Hama and Lattakia provinces on 20 November.
Russian soldiers scrawled messages on cruise missiles destined for Syrian ISIS targets, including “For Paris”.
The decision was made to “protect passengers and because of the crossing of cruise missiles and bombers from the northern part of Iraq to Syria, launched from the Caspian Sea and Iran and Iraq”, it said.
Russian Federation says its intervention is aimed at helping the Syrian government defeat the Islamic State group, but local activists and USA officials say the strikes have also targeted Western-backed rebels fighting to overthrow Assad.
The United States and Russian Federation are going after the Islamic State group’s oil industry, destroying refineries and hundreds of tanker trucks transporting oil from eastern Syria in a heavy bombardment in recent days aiming to break the extremists’ biggest source of income.
Experts are suggesting the escalation of attacks is Russia’s promised retaliation for the downing of a Russian airliner last month in the Sinai Peninsula, which killed 224 civilians.
This campaign against ISIS is being carried out in collaboration with the French armed forces. It said other airports would operate normally.
The Russian military is writing “For Paris” and “For Ours” on the bombs loading onto Russian war planes heading to Syria, as they show their friendship and solidarity with France following the brutal terrorist attacks last week.
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Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin in a briefing that cruise missile strikes against one target near the Islamic State-controlled city of Deir Ezzor had killed “more than 600 fighters”, but did not specify when the strike had taken place.
