Fighting erupts in central Syria amid Russian airstrikes

Ships from the Caspian Sea fleet launched 26 cruise missile strikes that hit 11 targets over 1,500 kilometres away in Syria, Moscow said.

The Pentagon only wants talks aimed at making sure there are no conflicts, collisions or other problems as the U.S.-led coalition and the Russians fly over Syria.

The defense official said that so far there have been no incidents or conflicts with the Russians, even though they are sharing the same battlespace in the skies over Syria.

Moscow says it is targeting the Islamic State group and al-Qaida’s Syrian affiliate, but at least a few of the strikes appear to have hit Western-backed rebel factions.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s critique amounted to a rebuff of Russian Federation, which had sought greater coordination as Moscow escalates its military role in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“Strikes have hit 112 targets from September 30 until today”, Shoigu said.

Opposition activists have condemned the Russian airstrikes claiming they targeted civilians and opposition fighters, not IS terrorists.

“They continue to hit targets that are not ISIL”, Carter said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.

Russian efforts “will be synchronised with the actions of the Syrian army on the ground and the actions of our air force will effectively support the offensive operation of the Syrian army”, Mr Putin said at a televised a meeting with Mr Shoigu. The Russian leader said the idea came from French President Francois Hollande.

The Russian airstrikes strikes appear to have emboldened Syrian troops to launch the ground push after a series of setbacks in northwestern Syria in recent months. Moscow says it shares the West’s aim of preventing the spread of Islamic State militants who have seized much of Syria since civil war grew out of anti-government protests in 2011.

The offensive in central Syria and the ensuing clashes with militants, including the Nusra Front, was the first major ground fighting since the Russian campaign began.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a government offensive began early Wednesday on four fronts in Idlib and neighboring Hama provinces in what the group’s director Rami Abdurrahman called “the most intense fighting in months”.

Russia’s strikes on Wednesday targeted the towns of Kafr Zita, Kafr Nabudah, al-Sayyad and the village of al-Latamneh in Hama province and the towns of Khan Shaykhun and Alhbit in Idlib, the Observatory said.

A regional source familiar with the military situation in Syria said forces including Hezbollah fighters were taking part in the ground attack against four rebel-held areas.

He says USA aircraft are still flying attack and other missions daily over Syria, but he acknowledged that the air operations have had to be adjusted since the Russians began flying.

He said Russian and USA experts were expected to discuss technical details on Wednesday. The Syrian military has Russian-made helicopters in its air force. Although the missile system had been seen as a potential threat to Western European targets, the evidence it has an effective range of more than 900 miles surprised analysts of Russian military hardware.

Putin, by contrast, has a single proxy in Syria and a clear goal: keeping Assad in power.