Russian Federation Says It Destroyed Islamic State headquarters in Syria

Gerasimov said the Paris attacks and the downing of the Russian plane in Egypt are “links of the same chain”, adding that “our anger and our grief should help Russia and France unite their efforts in the fight against global terrorism”.

Colonel-General Andrei Kartapolov said in a post on the Defense Ministry’s Facebook page that Tu-95M3 strategic bombers launched 12 cruise missiles against targets near Aleppo and Idlib in Syria on Thursday morning, and a group of Tu-22M3 bombers conducted intensive raids hours later near Raqqa and Deir-Ez-Zur.

With this in mind, French President Francois Hollande will meet President Putin and US President Obama next week.

“In recent days, the air force has destroyed 500 vehicles”.

“They are a necessary and proportionate response to the attacks carried out by IS”, he said.

On Wednesday Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said if the West wanted an worldwide coalition against IS, it must drop its demands for Assad’s ouster.

He said the Russian military air fleet in Syria was reinforced by 8 Su-34 bombers and a unit of Sy-27SM3 jet fighters, according to the report.

Russian news agencies on Thursday quoted Oleg Syromolotov as saying that out of a few 2,700 Russians fighting in Syria, 73 have returned and been convicted and 36 placed under arrest. They joined Russian war planes based at the Hemeimeem air base in Syria’s province of Latakia.

Separately, US-led air strikes have hit at least 177 targets in the so-called Islamic State’s main oil-producing region over the past month.