Russia, United States hold military talks on Syria

Vladimir Putin has dismissed claims that Russian air strikes have killed civilians in Syria, as his government faces criticism from the West that it bombed moderate rebel factions fighting Syria’s president instead of Islamic State (IS) fighters.

“We are ready for such information attacks”, he said in a live broadcast from the Kremlin.

“The first reports about civilian casualties emerged even before our planes got in the air”, he said. Moscow is a long-standing ally of the Assad family, with Washington tired that Putin is using the cover of attacks on the Islamic State as a pretext for hitting the president’s opponents. In comments after the meeting, posted early Thursday on the Russian Foreign Ministry website, Mr Lavrov said: “In response to a request by the Syrian leadership, we are helping to fight exclusively with ISIS and other terrorist groups”.

His group counts itself as part of the “Free Syrian Army”, which was set up by Syrian armydefectors after the eruption of the uprising.

On Wednesday afternoon, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov announced that Russian warplanes had struck positions in Syria associated with the Daesh militant group.

“Where those strikes occurred, those were not anti-ISIS strikes”, Lt. Gen. Robert Otto, the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, told defense reporters at a breakfast roundtable.

He said that Moscow had no plans to extend the bombing – the first military engagement outside the former USSR since the occupation of Afghanistan in 1979 – beyond Syria.

Lavrov also went on to say that the legal basis for U.S. coalition air strikes was “really flawed”.

This would be a plain victory for Assad, who invited the Russians to join his battle to cling on to power, and a defeat for the United States, which has demanded he step down.

All of this is a concerted effort to further Russian interests, including strengthening ties with its allies and bolstering support at home, he said.

Meanwhile, Iran has pledged its full backing for the Russian airstrikes, saying it was a “step toward fighting terrorism and toward resolving the current crisis” in Syria.

It said the raids destroyed a “terrorist” headquarters, a weapons warehouse, a command centre and a vehicle bomb factory.