The Observatory said Russia’s strikes targeted the towns of Kafr Zita, Kafr Nabudah, al-Sayyad and the village of al-Latamneh in Hama province and the towns of Khan Shaykhun and Alhbit in Idlib.
Advertisement
The Kalibr cruise missile is a relatively new addition to Russia’s arsenal, and according to IHS Janes analyst Jeremy Binnie, Wednesday’s launch is the first time the missile’s 900 mile plus range has been made public.
He said the United States was not ready to cooperate with Russian Federation on operations in Syria.
Iranian state TV, citing Russian media, reported that the Russian missiles flew through Iran’s airspace and hit targets in Syria.
A senior administration official, who also asked not to be identified, insisted that there were “no surprises” and that policymakers were “comfortable” with the intelligence they received in the lead-up to the Russian offensive.
A wave of airstrikes by Russian warplanes in Syria has been accompanied by a ground assault by “regime forces”, says a monitoring group. He said the advance covered an area of over 16 kilometers (10 miles), and was a coordinated, multipronged attack, the boldest in the area in months.
“Everyone is fed up with the Donbass (eastern Ukraine) and attention has turned to Syria, where there are intense battles”, said 36-year-old rebel fighter Konstantin, better known as Gin, his nom de guerre. Rebels have controlled areas on the highway since 2012. “Russia has been striking the [Islamic State] for more than a week and the US has been for more than a year”.
The Observatory said 37 Russian air raids hit on Wednesday alone.
The Russian defence ministry itself has said in a statement it has more than 50 warplanes and helicopters based in Syria.
Protected by the Russian air cover, Syrian regime troops have pushed into rebel strongholds in the country’s northwest. Decisions expected include approval for two new North Atlantic Treaty Organisation headquarters units in Hungary and Slovakia to enhance their defenses and speed the deployment of reinforcements sent by other alliance nations, and changes in the beefed-up North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Response Force to, in Stoltenberg’s words, make it “bigger, faster and more capable”.
“They will ensure that our forces can move quickly and effectively if they need to deploy”, Stoltenberg said.
Moscow says it is targeting jihadist groups like Islamic State in co-ordination with Syria’s government.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter speaks at a news conference on May 1, 2015.
Egypt is a member of the Saudi-led coalition that launched a massive air campaign against the Shia Houthi group in Yemen.
An Islamic State operative denied there were any Russian hits on his group’s locations.
“We understand that Israel has national security interests and we take these into account when we formulate our regional policies”. It is territory that Assad must regain to secure his power over Syria’s main population centers in the west of the country, even if that strategy means abandoning swathes of desert and farmland further east.
Turkey, also a neighbour of Syria, has complained of repeated violations of its airspace.
“The work of the Defense Ministry in general, of General Staff experts, of officers and military personnel operating on the ground, and of our pilots in Syria merits special thanks”, Putin said in praise of the week-long campaign.
Advertisement
Yes, Putin needs to rescue his ally, the brutal Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, from losing a bloody civil war and Russian Federation would like to hang on to its naval facility in the Syrian port of Latakia.
