Images Show Russian Federation Firing Cruise Missiles At IS

Long-range bombers and navy ships have launched 101 cruise missiles in four days, including 18 fired from the Caspian.

At the United Nations, member states backed a motion calling for action against IS a week after 130 people were killed in Paris, the worst such attack on French soil also claimed by the jihadist group based in Syria and Iraq.

The figure supplied by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is more that double the overall toll it gave in its last report on the Russian campaign three weeks ago.

The Russian military inscribed “That’s for Paris”, according to its UK Embassy, on the side of one of its bombs as it ramped up the fight against Islamic State militants in Syria in the wake of the Paris attacks. Syrian government control is limited to an air base and part of Deir al-Zor city.

Islamic State has also come under pressure as a U.S.-led coalition, accompanied by a few rebel groups on the ground, wages air strikes against it in eastern Syria.

The raid comes on the same day the head of Russian security announced a bomb brought down the Metrojet Russian passenger plane that crashed near Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt on October 31, killing all 224 people on board. Russia’s defense minister said its warplanes have fired cruise missiles on militant positions in Syria’s Idlib and Aleppo provinces.

It was the second time that warships have been used since the start of the bombing campaign on September 30. He said that they destroyed about 500 trucks carrying oil in several days of strikes.

The US-led coalition does not coordinate with Damascus however.

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”. These attacks have deprived ISIS of $1.5million (£990,000) in daily income from oil sales.