Russian Federation says conducts third day of ‘massive’ Syria strikes

Russian Federation has announced it is co-ordinating military efforts against IS in Syria with France, which has stepped up its own air strikes after the murder of 129 people in terror attacks on a concert hall, football stadium, bars and restaurants in Paris on Friday 13th November.

The BBC’s Steve Rosenberg in Moscow says that in the Russian Defence Ministry video soldiers can be seen writing messages on the bombs before loading them onto the aircraft – phrases like: “This is revenge for our dead” and “This is for Paris”.

Russian Federation first launched air strikes on Syria in September at the request of its long-standing ally President Bashar al-Assad, while a US-led coalition of countries opposed to the Syrian strongman is conducting a separate air campaign against ISIS. US defense officials have ruled out cooperation or coordination of targets with Russian Federation.

A high level French delegation met President Assad recently and was told that a coordinated strategy was possible provided France brought it all up on the table, by opening its mission in Damascus. They’ve previously taken opposite sides in the civil war there.

Flights operating out of Beirut airport will continue unaffected despite a notice of planned Russian naval drills in the Mediterranean, airport official Ibrahim Abu Alioun said Friday.

French President Francois Hollande is set to travel to Washington and Moscow next week for talks on joint military action against IS, and Putin already has ordered the military to cooperate with the French.

The question for Western governments, including a rightly skeptical Obama administration, is whether joining with Putin would help or hurt the cause of destroying the Islamic State.

Most of those strikes targeted strongholds of the Islamic State group in Raqqa and Deir-ez-Zor, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Syrian dictator “has become the magnet for the foreign fighters” joining the Islamic State, Kerry said.

Yesterday, French and Russian forces launched numerous attacks on IS targets in Syria.

“This is one of the reasons, why de-confliction is not really needed at this time”.

The only productive contribution Putin could make to an anti-Islamic State coalition would be to reverse himself, use Russia’s leverage to obtain the removal of Assad and stop attacks on Western-sponsored forces.

The doomed plane was operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia and crashed en route from Sharm el-Sheikh to Saint Petersburg, Russia, killing all 224 people on board.

“Life indeed moves on, often very quickly, and teaches us lessons”, Putin said, as the Two-Way reported. Kremlin-supported groups are active in Kharkiv, Odesa and other places, Mr. Korewa goes on to say, explaining that it isn’t clear “if these organizations are real terrorist groups, or if they are just a cover for Russian intelligence or their proxies in Ukraine”.