“This is further reassurance for our allies on the eastern flank of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation – for the Baltic states and for Poland”, he said, as he arrived in Brussels for a meeting of alliance defence ministers.
Advertisement
“As for the Russian air force operation in Syria, our actions in support of safeguarding Syria contribute to ensuring stability and security in the region sitting on Turkey’s borders”, Mr Peskov told a call with journalists.
Russians did not notify the United States or coalition forces in advance, the officials said.
Russia’s ambassador to Ankara had earlier been summoned three times in response to recent violations of Turkey’s airspace.
It’s not yet clear where they hit or if there were any casualties and neither Russian nor Iranian authorities have confirmed the incident.
The Assad regime yesterday (Wednesday) launched a major ground offensive against rebel forces in western and central Syria, backed by a barrage of Russian cruise missiles and air strikes in the first co-ordinated assault by the allies.
“NATO has already responded by increasing our capacity, our ability our preparedness to deploy forces, including to the south, including in Turkey, if needed”, he added.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported “the most intense fighting in months” in Hama and Idlib provinces.
“We have not agreed to cooperate with Russian Federation, so long as they continue to pursue their mistaken strategy and hit these non-ISIL targets”, Davis said, using an acronym for the Islamic State.
Twenty-six cruise missiles flew for 900 miles across Iran and Iraq before hitting plants for making shells and explosives, command centres, ammunition dumps and training camps, according to Russia’s defence ministry.
The secretary told reporters that Russian Federation was backing the wrong horse in Syria and urged President Vladimir Putin to sign up to the USA programme of a future without Assad.
Recapturing it from the alliance of terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front which thrust into the area in late July, would help secure Assad’s coastal heartlands and could provide a platform to drive the terrorists back from other areas.
Advertisement
The cruise missile attack was part of an expanding Russian military campaign in Syria that has deepened the divide between Moscow and Washington over how to approach the Syrian civil war and the presence there of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria fighters.
