Witnesses in the besieged area of northern Homs countryside, however, said airstrikes have injured at least 100 civilians.
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Moscow said that it targeted “terrorists” in Syria, where ruthless movements such as the Islamic State group have emerged amid the brutal conflict.
“We have such an invitation and we intend to fight against terrorist organizations and them only,” Putin added. “We carefully make sure that these target strikes are precise”.
Russian airstrikes in Syria are targeting Islamic State militants and other “well known” groups, a spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.
Russian airstrikes carried out Wednesday in western Syria have caused a number of civilian casualties, Khaled Khoja, head of the Turkey-based Syrian National Coalition, said Wednesday evening.
“I want to be careful about confirming information, but it does appear that they (Russian airstrikes) were in areas where there probably were not IS forces“, said Defence Secretary Ash Carter, referring to another acronym for the IS. “It’s not going to survive, and certainly, there’s absolutely no hope of if regaining control over the whole of Syria“.
The US has been pretty clear about its intentions in Syria: Both ISIS and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad need to go.
The warplanes started their mission shortly after the Russian Parliament unanimously voted to allow Vladimir Putin to use the air force to target militants.
Ali, a Syrian army captain who defected after the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, said a few of the guards of the facility were slightly wounded in the attack.
Orlov said Russian officials warned the Americans “via confidential channels” of where they planned to strike.
If confirmed, such a development would mean a military alliance between Russian Federation and Assad’s other main allies – Iran and Hezbollah – focused on recapturing areas of northwestern Syria that were seized by insurgents backed by the U.S. and Gulf Arab states and Turkey in what is emerging as a regional proxy war backed by regional and global military powers.
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Russian aircraft carried out a bombing attack against Syrian opposition fighters on Wednesday, including at least one group trained by the Central Intelligence Agency, eliciting angry protests from US officials and plunging the complex sectarian war there into unsafe new territory.
