ISIS makes gains in Syria

Gen. Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian defence ministry, said raw recordings of the missiles hitting their targets are evidence of the false statements in the US report.

“I cannot say anything, but any professional in this field knows that in carrying out such operations, you always find the image of the target before and after the impact”, continued the defense.

Iran’s Irna news agency reported on Wednesday that an unknown flying object had crashed in the village of Ghozghapan in the Iranian province of West Azerbaijan, said to be under the missiles’ flight path.

“We have not and will not agree to cooperate with Russian Federation so long as they continue to pursue this misguided strategy”, he exclaimed.

Islamic State has seized control of several villages north of Aleppo, Syria, despite Russian and USA air strikes said to be targeting the group.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it fired missiles from ships in the Caspian Sea for a second day and had hit weapons factories, arms dumps, command centers and training camps.

The New York Times reports that official state media in Iran also cast doubt on the American claim.

Russian Federation began launching the missiles on Wednesday, a week after the start of an airstrike campaign aimed at helping Syrian President Bashar Assad, who is entrenched in a five-year-old civil war with anti-government rebels that has fueled the rise of ISIS.

Hassan Haj Ali, head of the Liwa Suqour al-Jabal rebel group, said one of the targets was his group’s base in Idlib province, struck by about 20 missiles in two separate sorties.

But rebels on the ground and western states said Moscow’s air campaign, combined with ground attacks by pro-Assad forces, have mainly targeted rebel groups not associated with Isis, including US-trained fighters.

On Thursday, Ashton Carter, the U.S. defence secretary, accused Moscow of inflaming extremism.

Human Rights Watch on Friday said that a suspected Russian air strikes on the central town of Talbiseh on September 30 killed at least 17 civilians and wounded 72, adding that the incident should be investigated for possible violations of the laws of war. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Lavrov, informed President Vladimir Putin of the successful strike, during a televised exchange after the attack.