France launches new air strike in Syria against IS: minister

“France hit Daesh (ISIL) in Syria last night in Raqqa…”

“The Russian military action in Syria over the past 10 days does not target Daesh, their main aim is [to ensure] the security of Bashar al-Assad”, Mr Le Drian said.

France has conducted its second set of airstrikes against Islamic State positions in Syria, French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Friday.

Russia’s Sukhoi Su-25, Su-24M and Su-34 attack aircraft, with the support of Su-30 jets, commenced precision airstrikes against IS targets in Syria on September 30, following a request from Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Russian Federation must “stop interfering” and halt attacks in Syria as well as the violations of Turkey’s airspace, Turkey’s interim deputy prime minister, Numan Kurtulmas, said in an interview with state-run Anadolu Agency published on Friday.

He speaks to the camera directly, as do the four others, as part of the anti-radicalisation campaign.

Russia’s defence ministry has been under sustained criticism from the West for its role in the Syrian conflict and denied a claim by a U.S. official that four Syria-bound Russian cruise missiles fired from the Caspian Sea crashed in Iran. “But at this time, the Syrian army is capable of carrying out ground battles by itself”, Zoubi said. In a report this week, Britain’s Quilliam Foundation found that Islamic State had released more than 1,100 pieces of propaganda in a one-month period this summer.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meanwhile warned that trade ties could suffer over Russia’s violation of Turkish airspace and military buildup in the region centered in Syria’s Latakia, a stronghold of Assad and his Alawite leadership on the Mediterranean.