He also said the United States would “continue to support” moderate rebels in Syria because they are groups that “can help pick up the pieces and stitch together a cohesive, coherent country” in the aftermath of Assad’s rule.
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“Air strikes are useless unless they are conducted in cooperation with the Syrian army, the only force in Syria that is combating terrorism”, Walid Al Moualem said in a speech to United Nations General Assembly in New York. “This is not a few superpower chessboard contest”.
Russian and Syrian warplanes pounded Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) targets in several provinces in Syria on Friday, including the city of Raqqa which the militants regard as their headquarters.
“It does appear that they were in areas where there probably were not [Daesh] forces, and that is precisely one of the problems with this whole approach”, Carter said during an afternoon press conference at the Pentagon.
The United States has also accused the Kremlin of trying to buttress Assad, with President Barack Obama describing the air strikes that began Wednesday as “a recipe for disaster”.
He said that Russia’s military intervention in Syria was propping up Assad rather than tackling the treat from the so-called Islamic State.
Putin’s decision to launch strikes in Syria marks a dramatic escalation of foreign involvement in a civil war more than four years old, where every major country in the region has a stake.
The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources on the ground for its information, said Russian jets had killed 12 jihadists in Raqa this week.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan today urged Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to reconsider Moscow’s bombing campaign in Syria, accusing the Russian military of turning a blind eye to the killing of dozens of civilians.
British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, meanwhile, said that just five percent of Russian air strikes had targeted IS fighters.
“We will not cooperate with the Russian campaign only for trying to destroy anyone who bothered to Assad’s behavior and inspires a disgust”.
Despite Russia’s actions, Fallon insisted the British government would make the case to extend the RAF’s strikes, saying it would be “morally wrong” not to target IS in Syria.
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Still, Russia’s airstrikes have forced the Pentagon to grapple with whether the US should use military force to protect American-trained and -equipped Syrian rebels now that they may be the targets of Russian airstrikes.
