Syrian troops backed by Russian airstrikes battled insurgents in central Syria on Wednesday in the first major ground fighting since Moscow began launching air raids on militants last week, activists said.
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The news of the missile attack came via a televised meeting between the Russian minister of defense, Sergei K. Shoigu, and President Vladimir V. Putin.
Russia’s decision to attack what it claims to be IS targets in Syria with cruise missiles fired from warships in the Caspian Sea represents a new twist to Moscow’s growing involvement in the crisis.
But fighters on the ground and Western countries have said the Russian campaign is mainly focusing on other rebel groups that have seized government-held areas in the west, and is aimed at shoring up Assad rather than combating hardliners.
“We gathered military attaches [on Tuesday] and offered them, all our colleagues involved in this work one way or another, to tell us about their targets, actually, if they have such targets, so that we could even more efficiently work against ISIS units and camps”, the Russian defense minister said. The talks were proposed to allow Russian military officials to explain the intrusions and clarify measures they intend to take, he said.
Russian Federation has been conducting air strikes in Syria in defence of the embattled regime of President Bashar al-Assad since September 30.
The Free Syrian Army is ready to establish contacts with the Russian leadership, Fahad Masri, a former official FSA representative and a coordinator of the Syrian opposition’s National Salvation Front, said Wednesday.
Obama authorized an aerial campaign against the Islamic State that has included more than 2,600 airstrikes in Syria and 4,600 in Iraq, but the bombings have had limited success and he has so far ruled out sending American ground troops.
Meanwhile, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Russian airstrikes in Idlib killed at least seven civilians on Wednesday.
Kirby noted that Russia’s current actions in Syria are “largely reactive” to global pressure against Assad.
Quoted by Syrian state television, he said the strikes had helped Syria’s armed forces “maintain the military initiative”.
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“The United States continues to wait for the Russians to provide a formal response to the presentation that was made last week to establish a few basic de-confliction efforts”, said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.
