Russian missile strikes destroy several IS positions in Syria

“All our cruise missiles hit their target”, spokesman General Igor Konashenkov said.

The United States has since previous year led a 60-plus member coalition of nations bombing Islamic State jihadists in Iraq and Syria.

The plain also lies between Hama and Idlib, the northwestern provinces seized from government troops in September.

Assad is from the Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Syrian daily Al-Watan, which is close to the regime, said the army recaptured about 10 villages, including the village of Latmeen in Hama Province.

In June this year, RAF Typhoons were scrambled from Amari air base in Estonia to intercept and shadow two Russian military aircraft over the Baltic Sea.

It comes amid a wave of Russian airstrikes and a ground offensive by the Syrian army in the country’s central region. It also showed tanks and airstrikes.

But Moscow has dismissed claims that its week of strikes has mainly hit non-IS targets.

At least 13 regime fighters and 11 rebels were killed, the Observatory said. Local media said the helicopter belonged to the Syrian government.

But non-jihadist rebels and their worldwide backers insist that most of the areas targeted are not held by IS. And up until now, rebel groups have been successful keeping ISIS out of Aleppo.

Asked if Turkey’s Syria policy could change if the situation deteriorated, Davutoglu said that it was out of the question. The Russian defence ministry said it flew 67 sorties in the last 24 hours. Rebels have controlled areas on the highway since 2012.

The Russians maintain no civilians were killed.

Abdel Rahman said IS had been blamed for the bombing. The group alleged the attacks constituted a “grave violation of worldwide humanitarian law and, as a result, a war crime”.

Securing those areas would help consolidate Assad’s control over Syria’s main population centres in the west of the country, far from the Islamic State strongholds in the east. The officials were not authorised to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The US officials said the flight path of the Russian cruise missiles, called Kalibrs, would have taken them across northern sections of Iran and Iraq en route to Syria.

He added that all targets located at a distance of 1,500 km were destroyed with no civilian casualties.

The Russian defense ministry denied any of the missiles had fallen short of their targets after reports of crashes first emerged on us television. That report also quoted locals as saying the explosion had broken windows.

The Russian air war has provided cover for Assad’s ground troops, who have previously lost swathes of the country to IS and other fighters seeking to topple him.

“NATO is able and ready to defend all allies, including Turkey, against any threat,” he said.

The Russian military has used high-precision weaponry in strikes against Islamic State (IS) positions in Syria, the Russian Armed Forces General Staff said Wednesday.

He said North Atlantic Treaty Organisation will “assess the latest developments and their implications for the security of the alliance”.

Russian Federation says the recent anti-terror military campaign in Syria does not strain its current government’s budget.

U.S. Senator John McCain told Alhurra TV that Russian incursions in Turkey’s airspace are “very concerning”, and equated coordination talks between the United States of America and Russia to appeasement.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists today that Russia’s operations in Syria were aimed at supporting the Syrian army AND targeting terrorists and extremists there.