And the president suggested, “A military solution alone”, in which “Russia and Iran to prop up Assad and pacify the population”, will just “get them stuck in a quagmire, and it won’t work”.
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Iraq’s most powerful cleric called for a global war against IS on Friday, a day after the prime minister said he would welcome Russian air strikes against the group on Iraqi soil. “And that’s a recipe for disaster, and it’s one that I reject”.
Earnest said Moscow’s airstrikes will drive moderate forces, such as civilians arming themselves against Assad’s barrel bombs, into the protection of the Islamic State and other terrorist groups operating in Syria, such as the al-Nusra Front, an al Qaeda affiliate.
Two children were among at least seven civilians killed in air strikes carried out by Russian warplanes in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib, a monitoring group said today, citing witnesses.
Haj Ali, a Syrian army captain who defected after the 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, said a few of the guards of the facility were slightly wounded in the attack.
The defence ministry said it had also hit an IS training camp and command post in northwest Idlib province.
On Thursday, America accused Russian Federation of “indiscriminate” bombing against the Syrian militants, but the Kremlin says its aim is the same as that of America: to target terrorist groups.
Rebel activists also reported strikes at Ghantu in Homs province, close to a few of Wednesday’s attacks. “We have the right to do it”, Khoja said, adding that the Free Syrian Army is prepared to confront the Russian “occupation”.
Mr Putin is meeting French and German counterparts Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel in Paris to discuss the continuing crisis in Ukraine but the talks are set to be overshadowed by events in Syria. Troops of both countries are fighting in Syria with different objectives.
Walid al-Muallem said that he understood the talks, proposed by United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura, to be “mainly to exchange ideas” and non-binding. “But what I told Mr. Putin is that the strikes must concern Daesh, and only Daesh”.
President Barack Obama on Friday criticized Russia’s recent airstrikes over the Syrian city of Homs as a dead-end strategy that will ultimately empower the Islamic State militant group.
“ISIS is not like Al-Qaida who often fled after attacking an area”, Lavrov said.
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The Russians are strong supporters of Assad, whose brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters five years ago sparked a civil war that has left 250,000 dead and forced 4 million more to flee the country.
