Meanwhile, Russian Federation has carried out more air strikes in Syria it says targeted so-called Islamic State (IS) positions.
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Since the spokesman said ISIS was the target of 50 flights, it can be assumed that, as expected, President Putin’s forces are hitting anti-regime fighters as well.
The 41 groups which signed the statement did not include Islamic State or al Qaeda’s Syria wing Nusra Front, which is in an insurgent coalition with Ahrar al-Sham that captured most of Idlib province in the northwest.
A Russian aircraft entered Turkish airspace near the Syrian border on Saturday, prompting Turkey to scramble two F-16 jets to intercept it and summon Russia’s ambassador in protest.
– Assad says that the success of Russia’s intervention is vital for the whole Middle East, and that its failure would mean the region risks being “destroyed”. Russian strikes have broken “the management and logistics of the terrorist organisation” and caused “significant damage to the infrastructure used for preparation of terrorist attacks”, the ministry said on its website. The same message was also relayed to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov by his Turkish counterpart Feridun Sinirlioglu in a telephone conversation.
The country called in the Russian ambassador and lodged a strong condemnation of the violation, Turkey’s foreign ministry said Monday.
“The problem here is Assad and the brutality he’s inflicted on the Syrian people,” Obama said.
“Regarding Syria, I said for the first time: We will need military efforts, but military efforts will not bring the solution; we need a political process, but that has not really got going very well yet”, she said.
Moscow began its military campaign against terrorists in Syria on September 30 upon a request from the Damascus government.
“We are aware of those reports and are seeking further information”, a senior administration official told BuzzFeed News in an email.
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One of Syria’s largest rebel groups, the hardline Islamist Ahrar al-Sham, meanwhile released a statement denouncing Russian “occupation” of Syria and saying that “any occupying forces are a legitimate target for us”.
