Russia, Iran Deny Report Of Russian Missiles Striking Iran

The Russian defence ministry said stepped-up air strikes on rebel positions in Syria killed 300 anti-Assad rebels and that it hit 60 Islamic State targets over the last day.

It was unclear whether the missiles caused any damage, they said.

Meanwhile, the Iranian defense ministry rejected reports alleging that four of the 26 cruise missiles fired from Russia’s Caspian fleet at IS targets in Syria have crash-landed in Iran, saying the reports are part of the West’s “psychological warfare”.

When the journalist conducting the interview said that Russian Federation is “challenging your leadership, Mr. President”, and is “bombing the people – that we are supporting”, Obama questioned whether that was any indication of leadership at all. “All our cruise missiles hit their target”, said spokesman Gen Igor Konashenkov.

Several senior Iranian Guards officers have been killed in Syria since the start of the civil war, which erupted after protests in 2011 against President Bashar al-Assad were put down with force.

The Observatory said IS seized the villages of Tal Qrah, Kfar Qares and at least four other small settlements in the northern Aleppo countryside.

The ministry also said it destroyed an Islamic State base and munitions storage set up in a former prison near Aleppo, killing another 100 militants.

He said the Russian jets had been identified by members of his group who once served as Syrian Air Force pilots.

The BBC’s Jim Muir in Beirut says that Russian air strikes seem to be mostly hitting other Syrian opposition forces which pose more of a threat to the Moscow-backed Syrian government.

Iranian military advisers have reportedly been heavily involved in organising the fight against Syrian rebels.

ISIS militants reached their closest position yet to Aleppo in northern Syria at dawn yesterday after hours of ferocious fighting with rival opponents of Mr Assad, a monitoring group reported. More than a week after it began launching airstrikes in Syria, Russian Federation seems to be reasserting itself as a superpower.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the 20 explosions killed 14 IS fighters and wounded more than 20.