Iran declines to confirm hit by Russian Federation missiles

“The Russian defence ministry said all missiles fired at targets in Syria on Thursday had reached their targets”.

But Moscow has dismissed claims that its week of strikes has mainly hit non-IS targets.

We have not received any report indicating the crash of the Russian missiles on Iranian territories, an unnamed official at the Iranian Defense Ministry responded.

Russia’s use of cruise missiles has also fueled anxious about mishaps in the skies over Syria and the need for Moscow to agree to certain flight safety procedures proposed by the U.S.

It made no mention of any missiles going astray.

Islamic State fighters have seized villages close to the northern city of Aleppo from rival insurgents, a monitoring group said yesterday, despite an intensifying Russian air-and-sea campaign that Moscow says has targeted the militant group.

Russia’s involvement in Syria, which began with airstrikes September 30 and escalated Wednesday with cruise missiles, “raises serious concerns”, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said after a meeting of the alliance’s defense ministers in Brussels.

Kirby said over the last two days that the USA believes more than 90 percent of Russia’s military efforts in Syria are aimed at groups that oppose Assad, and aren’t targeting the Islamic State. “We now change to a form that would lead to larger military combat capabilities”, a USA official said.

Russian Federation said its warplanes flew 22 sorties and carried out 11 airstrikes on Islamic State training facilities in Hama and Raqqa provinces.

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.

On October 9, the NGO Human Rights Watch said at least 17 civilians were killed in the Homs area by Russian air strikes earlier this month and called for an investigation.

Assad is a key ally of Iran, and has served as a middleman to funnel arms and funds from Tehran to Hezbollah.

“There has been a misunderstanding over how we got our majority”, says a well-connected GOP strategist.