Russian Federation warships fire cruise missiles to back Syrian army offensive

Four Russian cruise missiles aimed at targets in Syria instead crashed in Iran, a United States official said today, declining to comment on whether there were any casualties.

Tom reports that the missiles landed in a rural area of Iran.

Nor would the official say exactly what type of cruise missiles went down, except to say that they were among a salvo fired Wednesday from Russian warships in the Caspian.

The Russian military reported that the missiles traveled from the Caspian Sea over desolate parts of Iran and Iraq before reaching and successfully hitting their targets.

The Iranian role points to the powerful influence of the country, which is the strongest backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad and is close to the Shiite-led leadership in Iraq’s U.S.-backed government.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Moscow has insisted it is striking facilities of the Islamic State militant group, but that so far this hasn’t matched up with the targets Russian Federation is blasting from the air.

Findings of major blind spots would mark the latest of several USA intelligence misses in recent years, including Moscow’s surprise takeover of Ukraine’s Crimea region last year and China’s rapid expansion of island-building activities in the South China Sea.

This is the first time since the onset of Russia’s military operation against Daesh and other terrorist groups in Syria that an American official has offered specific figures about the impact of Moscow’s airstrikes.

But that offensive had failed to make significant gains and rebels claimed that the regime had lost more than a dozen tanks to their anti-tank weapons.

Word of the Russian naval strikes in Syria come as Syrian government forces launched a major ground offensive against rebels under cover of Russian airstrikes.

According to reports, Hossein Hamedani, a senior Iran commander was killed by ISIS on the outskirts of Aleppo city, but it was yet to be confirmed whether his death had taken place during the lastest ISIS offensive.

The Russian defense ministry said stepped-up air strikes on rebel positions in Syria killed 300 anti-Assad rebels and that it hit 60 Islamic State targets over the last day.

The United States has ruled out military cooperation with Russian Federation in Syria, accusing Assad’s ally Moscow of pursuing a “tragically flawed” strategy that would force it to limit military talks to basic pilot safety.

“Brig. Gen. Hamedani was martyred by Daesh terrorists during an advisory mission in the outskirts of Aleppo” on Thursday afternoon, said the statement read on IRNA, using an Arabic acronym for the group.

Russia’s air campaign has raised concern among other backers of the rebels, including France.

Abu al-Baraa, a fighter with the Ajnad al-Sham rebel group, speaking to Reuters via Internet messenger from the Ghab Plain, said: “The regime has been trying since yesterday to advance… and tried many times, with Russian jets paving their way, but… most of the attacks are repelled”. The conflict has killed 250,000 people, causing a refugee crisis in Europe and neighboring nations.

Neighbouring Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member, has been angered by violations of its air space by Russian warplanes and the Western alliance said it was prepared to send troops to Turkey to defend it.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that Moscow’s military action in Syria is endangering trade ties with his country, saying Ankara could look elsewhere for gas supplies and cancel the construction of its first nuclear power plant, which is being built by Russian Federation.