Russian Federation fires cruise missiles from Caspian Sea to Syria ISIS targets

Russian warships in the Caspian Sea have been firing cruise missiles as Syrian government troops launch a ground offensive in central Syria.

Russia’s bombing campaign comes more than a year after a US-led coalition began air strikes against IS in Syria, and the number of nations flying sorties over the country has raised concern about possible military incidents. But the strikes appear to have given Assad new confidence to try to retake a few lost ground.

The new Russian strikes were accompanied for the first time by a Syrian army ground operation that prompted fierce clashes with rebels in the central province of Hama, a monitoring group said.

Russian Defence Ministry on October 5 shows a Russian aircraft dropping bombs during an airstrike against Islamic State group’s in Syria.

According to the ministry, the Russian military attack was conducted “by high-precision ship missile systems Kalibr NK, the cruise missiles of which engaged all the assigned targets successfully and with high accuracy”.

Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said fourRussian navy ships in the Caspian launched 26 cruise missiles at Islamic State targets in Syria.

But he acknowledges that the air operations have had to be adjusted since the Russians began flying.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a government offensive began on four fronts early Wednesday in the northwestern provinces of Idlib and neighboring Hama.

An adviser to the Free Syrian Army rebel alliance said the attacks could be the beginning of Assad’s largest ground offensive.

Russian air strikes have repeatedly targeted the province over the past week, though there is no known Islamic State presence in the area.

Activist Ahmad al-Ahmad, who is now in Idlib, said government troops are “heavily” shelling central areas after rebels attacked an army post and destroyed a tank there.

He said the US will limit its discussions with Russian Federation to basic, technical talks about efforts to ensure that flights over Syria are conducted safely and, “That’s it”.

He said only two out of 57 Russian strikes had hit the jihadist group. It was not immediately clear if the pilots were Russians or Syrians.

The United States will not cooperate militarily with Russian Federation in Syria because Moscow’s strategy is “tragically flawed”, US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Wednesday in his strongest comments yet on the issue.

“Greater than 90 percent of the strikes that we’ve seen them take to date have not been against ISIL or al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorists”, said State Department spokesman John Kirby.

Russian Federation last week began carrying out airstrikes in Syria in what it said was a pre-emptive operation against terrorism in the Middle East. He urged Moscow to respect Turkey’s airspace, saying the country would not “make any concessions” on its border security.

But a Russian defense official said the talks should be much broader than what the Pentagon is seeking.

Since September 2014, a U.S.-led coalition has been hitting Islamic State positions in Syria mostly in the northern and eastern parts of the country, as well as in Iraq.

The Pentagon only wants talks aimed at making sure there are no conflicts, collisions or other problems as the U.S.-led coalition and the Russians fly over Syria.