USA sources have said the Russians actually hit facilities of a U.S.-backed group, a few of whose rebels received training and support from the Central Intelligence Agency.
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“We’re analyzing where the strikes are going every morning”, said Fallon.
Russian air strikes destroyed an Islamic State command post near Raqa among other targets, the defence ministry said today, as Moscow pressed on with its bombing campaign in Syria.
The British PM – speaking from his Oxfordshire constituency ahead of the ruling Conservative Party’s conference in Manchester – said Russia’s military intervention was “really making the situation worse”.
The observatory said Russian strikes in Homs province had killed 30 civilians on Thursday, including six women and six children.
Following the strikes, the Jaish al-Fateh rebels started moving weapon depots out of the cities of Idlib province, much of which have fallen to the Jaish al-Fateh, which is an alliance of several jihadi groups, including the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front. “I don’t think people are fooled by the current strategy”.
This comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin is in Paris where he is expected to meet with French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“It’s obvious today’s attack on civilians showed clearly that the Russians’ aim [is] not to fight ISIS [or IS], it’s to prolong the life of the Syrian regime”, he added.
Moscow said yesterday its latest strikes had hit 12 IS targets but most of the areas it described were in the west and north while IS holds territory mainly in the east.
“These military actions constitute a further escalation and will only fuel more extremism and radicalisation”.
In a rare joint statement, leaders of France, Germany, Qatar, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the U.S. called on Friday for Russian Federation to immediately cease its airstrikes on Syrian rebel fighters and civilians and concentrate on hitting Islamic State (IS) group militants.
“The (Russian) air strikes will in the near future be accompanied by ground advances by the Syrian army and its allies”, said one of the sources familiar with political and military developments in the conflict.
Da’esh is another name for the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIL.
Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said Damascus would take part in United Nations talks aimed at launching formal negotiations on ending the four-year war but will not be bound by their outcome.
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“They pretended… Only 20 percent of their (U.S. led coalition) operations produced results, 80 percent of them did not lead to bombardments, they returned to base for different reasons”, Pushkov said.
