Syria: Russia launches new wave of air strikes

Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement that Sukhoi-34, Sukhoi-24M and Sukhoi-25 warplanes had flown 18 sorties and hit 12 Islamic State (IS) targets.

More than 50 Russian aircraft have been deployed to Syria as part of the military intervention, along with marines, paratroopers and special forces, Moscow added.

The ministry said a command post and communications centre in Aleppo province and a camp in Idlib were struck, and a command post in Hama province was also destroyed.

Syrian sources also said the Russian targets were in Aleppo, Idlib and Hama, raising questions about the probable allegiance of the militants being targeted.

US sources said on Thursday that the Russians have targeted facilities of more moderate anti-Assad rebels who had training and support from the CIA.

IS has little presence in some areas so far targeted by Russian jets.

Most rebel groups operating in Idlib and Hama provinces are insurgents trying to topple the government of Bashar al-Assad. IS and other anti-Assad groups both operate in the Aleppo region.

But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a Russian air strike had killed at least 12 IS fighters in the group’s stronghold of Raqqa province on Thursday.

And Moscow later released video footage of what it described as “the destruction of an IS command post by a SU34 bomber” near the village of Kassert Farradzh, south west of Raqqa.

Using an alternative name for IS, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov insisted a first round of Russian attacks had “targeted ISIL-associated depots, armaments and sites”.

He added: “The goal is terrorism and we are not supporting anyone against their own people. We fight terrorism.”

Civilian casualties

The observatory said Russian strikes in Homs province had killed 30 civilians on Thursday, including six women and six children.

And the Turkey-based Syrian Turkmen Assembly said in a statement that Russia’s first air strikes had hit Free Syrian Army sites and ethnic Turkmen areas in Homs and Hama. It said 40 civilians were killed in the village of Telbiseh, near Homs.

I would like to underline that there were no airstrikes on civilian infrastructure. Russian spokesman

A Russian Defence ministry spokesman said today: “I would like to underline that there were no airstrikes on civilian infrastructure, the more so on the buildings where there could have been or indeed have been peaceful civilians.

“To exclude civilians casualties the targets for airstrikes by Russian air forces are chosen only after detailed intelligence activities, identifying them as parts of the terrorists’ infrastructure, determining exact coordinates and confirmation of militants’ presence there through other sources.”

Coalition ‘pretending’ to attack

Russian politician Alexei Pushkov, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said in an interview with French radio that the strikes had mainly targeted IS or “Daesh” forces.

He said: “The opponents to Bashar are very close to Daesh.”

Mr Pushkov said the US-led coalition has been “pretending” to bomb IS for a year, with little effect.

“They pretended… only 20 per cent of their operations produced results, 80 per cent of them did not lead to bombardments, they returned to base for different reasons,” he said.

The website Airwars, which monitors coalition strikes in Syria and Iraq, said the US and its allies have carried out more than 7,000 strikes since the campaign began, more than 2,500 in Syria.

Mr Pushkov predicted that the Russian campaign would intensify but was unlikely to last more than three or four months.

Mixed reaction

Khaled Khoja, president of the western-backed National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, said: “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.

“It is obvious the Russians didn’t come to Syria to fight ISIL, they are coming to support the regime. They know they are supporting a killer.”

But ordinary Syrians in areas loyal to the Assad regime yesterday told Channel 4 News they welcomed Russia’s intervention.

Iraq’s prime minister also said he would welcome Russian strikes against IS on Iraqi soil, while the influential Iraqi Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called for the expansion of the war against the group.

Lebanese sources said hundreds of Iranian troops have arrived in Syria to launch a major ground offensive in support of the Assad regime.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not refer to Russia’s actions in his address to the UN General Assembly, but said: “Israel will continue to respond forcefully to any attacks against it from Syria.

“Israel will continue to act to prevent the transfer of strategic weapons to Hezbollah from and through Syrian territory.”

We might have to swallow the fact that a UN Security Council permanent member, Russia, and their very important neighbour, Iran, are going to be prepared to commit the military resources. Crispin Blunt

Crispin Blunt, the Conservative chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said Britain “might have to live with” Russian involvement.

He said: “We need to be careful about not making the best option, which would be the removal of Assad and the defeat of Isil, not the enemy of the necessary objective of our policy, which is ending this civil war and the defeat of Isil.

“If we are faced with that rather difficult choice then we might have to swallow the fact that a UN Security Council permanent member, Russia, and their very important neighbour, Iran, are going to be prepared to commit the military resources and give Syria the overhead cover in the UN Security Council to enable the regime to survive.”

Ukraine talks

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to meet the leaders of France, Germany and Ukraine later for a summit on the conflict in eastern Ukraine, but the meeting is sure to be overshadowed by events in Syria.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which is monitoring the ceasefire between Kiev and Russian-backed separatists, said its monitors had seen a new kind of Russian weapons system in a rebel-held area the first time.

The mobile TOS-1 Buratino rocket launcher fires thermobaric warheads which spread a flammable liquid around a target before igniting it, potentitally destroying several city blocks in one strike.

The Russian defence ministry did not reply to questions from reporters about whether they had supplied Ukrainian rebels with the weapon.