On Friday, a pair of Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers flew from a base on the Kola Peninsula over the Norwegian Sea, the North Atlantic and the Strait of Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean to launch long-range cruise missiles on targets in Syria, demonstrating the Russian military’s global reach.
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Moscow says its air strikes were requested by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and contends their main target is Islamic State militants who control large swathes of Syria and Iraq.
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, killing all 224 people on board.
“Following the participation of Russian air force in fighting terrorism, the situation improved well”.
“The armed group organized channels for residents of the republic to be sent to the territory of the Syrian Arabic Republic so that they could take part in activities by terrorist groups”, the anti-terrorism committee said in a statement.
“Now I can say that the army is making advancement in almost every front…in many different directions and areas on the Syrian ground”, he said, speaking in English.
The Russian interior ministry’s video of a small, fluffy German Shepherd puppy playing ball with a Russian policeman contrasts sharply with the macho image President Vladimir Putin has cultivated.
Russian Federation is coordinating its air strikes with Damascus, unlike the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group, which Assad and his government criticise as ineffectual.
This week, the U.S. State Department reportedly said that the clock starts once Assad’s representatives and opposition figures begin talks on a constitution. The vote would determine a new parliament, though not necessarily a new president.
A monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Syrian and Russian warplanes conducted 50 bombing raids in Deir al-Zour province – Russia’s most intense assault there to date.
A spokesman for Erbil International Airport said a change in the missiles’ route had brought them “uncomfortably close” to the airport, without providing more details.
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One of the strikes destroyed several oil tanks controlled by ISIS on Syria.
