‘This Is For Paris’: Russian Pilots Write Messages On Bombs Against ISIS

It has previously targeted oil installations under the control of Islamic State and said it aimed to cut the group’s main revenue stream.

A Russian air force Tu-160 bomber, top, is escorted by an Su-30SM on a combat mission against a target in Syria.

Militants killed 130 in an orchestrated gun and suicide bomb attack in Paris on November 13.

“The French strikes against oil sites controlled by Daesh (Islamic State) are part of legitimate self-defence”, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal told reporters on Friday.

There were separate reports of a pair of Russian cruise missiles flying low over the Aleppo Province in the direction of the ISIS capital city of Raqqa.

Russia, which has conducted an air campaign in Syria since September 30, sharply raised the intensity starting Tuesday following confirmation that the Russian plane in Egypt was downed by a bomb, which the Islamic State group said it had planted.

Sulaimaniyah airport director Tahir Abdullah said the decision was taken “because of the intensification of Russian missile attacks on Daesh strongholds in Syria”.

Russia’s air force participation in fighting terrorism in Syria has improved the situation in the Arab country, Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview with the Hong Kong-based television channel Phoenix TV quoted by SANA news agency on Sunday.

Defence minister Sergei Shoigu added that more than 600 rebels had been eliminated as a result of a single cruise missile strike on a target in Syrian Deir ez-Zour province.

Last month, Russian warships in the Caspian Sea fired cruise missiles almost 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) over Iran and Iraq.

Earlier this week, Russian Head of State Vladimir Putin promised to hound and “punish” the group behind the ISIS group that bombed a traveler jet over Sinai last month, killing all 224 people on board. Russian airmen have been recorded inscribing “That’s for Paris” on the side of one of the bombs they plan to use against IS in Syria. If he backs up his word with actions, Putin’s pledge could prove to be a turning point in the military campaign against ISIS in Syria.

Rami Abdurrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human rights, said prices of fuel shot up in some ISIS-ruled areas by around 80 percent, due to truck drivers refusing to drive to Islamic State oil facilities, fearing their vehicles will be hit.