But Russian Federation has been steadily building up its forces in Syria and USA officials say such strikes could start any time.
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Russia’s parliament granted President Vladimir Putin permission to launch airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Syria, Russian media reported Wednesday.
Moscow’s assertion that it had attacked Islamic State terrorists was immediately challenged by Washington and by rebel sources in Syria. Orlov told France Info radio the planes were acting as air support for Syrian ground troops.
United States and Russian foreign ministers have met to try and paper over the diplomatic cracks following the launch of Russia’s air raids in Syria.
None of the areas targeted was controlled by IS, activists said.
“Carter later said of the strikes: “[It] does appear they were in areas where there probably [were] not ISIL forces, and that is precisely one of the problems with this approach”. The claim could not be independently verified. “It’s too early for me to say exactly what targets they were aiming at and what targets were eventually hit”. “We are acting transparently”.
Thousands of citizens from the former Soviet Union had joined IS ranks in Syria and would pose a security threat to Russian Federation when they returned home, he said.
“The Department of Defence is obviously reviewing the ongoing Russian military activity inside of Syria”, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a news briefing.
A Russian official walked into the US embassy in Baghdad Wednesday morning to tell USA officials that Moscow would begin striking.
“Russia is intervening not to fight ISIL, but to prolong the life of Assad and support the continuous killing on a daily basis of civilians”, Khoja said, using an acronym for Islamic State.
Abu Zaid said that it showed Russian Federation has been given freedom by Assad to target members of anti-Assad rebel groups and kill civilians as well, instead of bombing ISIS.
According to Konashenkov, Wednesday’s airstrikes – which, he said, had been ordered directly by Russian President Vladimir Putin – had targeted Daesh munitions depots, vehicles and communications centers.
The primary goal of these talks will be to avoid any inadvertent incidents between USA and Russian forces.
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The first Russian operation in the Middle East in decades comes days after President Barack Obama and Putin exchanged blame over the Syrian crisis during and following their speeches at the United Nation General Assembly on Monday.
