Iranian Revolutionary Guard general killed

Gen. Moussa Kamali denied, on Friday, that any of the more than two dozen missiles, fired from Russian warships in the Caspian Sea, crash-landed in Iran, according to Fars News.

Its air force hit what it described as 27 Islamic State targets in the provinces of Homs, Hama and Raqqa, it said. Russia’s Defence Ministry declined to comment.

It comes amid a wave of Russian airstrikes and a ground offensive by the Syrian army in the country’s central region.

Speaking by internet link, he told Reuters Russian jets had been bombing since dawn, their most ferocious attack on the area so far.

Washington and its allies oppose Islamic State and Mr Assad, believing he must leave power in any peace settlement.

All at once the Caspian Sea strike showed both the ability of a few of its platforms to conduct long range land attack strikes like the USA and the limitations of its older ships.

David Cameron has repeatedly made clear that while he wants to join the U.S. in attacking IS in Syria, he will only seek a Commons vote if he can be sure of victory, which would require the support of a significant number of Labour MPs.

The Pentagon said it was “pausing” its own programme to train rebel groups to fight Isil, and would instead focus on equipping and providing direct air support to approved groups.

The rebels have managed to take the northwestern Idlib province from al-Assad’s forces, but are now facing Russian airstrikes in the area. “Their strategy in Syria is fundamentally flawed”, he said.

Obama cast the moves as a sign of weakness, and drew a comparison to Russia’s incursion into Ukraine, which prompted global sanctions on key economic sectors.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the latest push by the extremist militia is “one of the biggest advances the Islamic State has scored in months”.

At least 13 regime fighters and 11 rebels were killed, the Observatory said. “If so, that would indicate malfunctions of those missiles,” he said. But Carter insisted the Russian operation is risky.

The Russians are strong supporters of Assad, whose brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters five years ago sparked a civil war that has left 250,000 dead and forced 4 million more to flee the country.

While Carter again pointed to the need for an agreement on “professional safety procedures” to avoid accidents in Syrian skies between Russian and U.S.-led sorties, which are taking aim at ISIS, he stressed that the US would not cooperate militarily at a strategic level with Russia.

The New York Times reports that official state media in Iran also cast doubt on the American claim. Turkey is a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member.