Russian missiles intended for Syria crash in Iran

Four Russian cruise missiles aimed at targets in Syria crashed in Iran, a USA official said on Thursday (Friday in Manila), as regime troops backed by Lebanon’s Hezbollah pressed a “vast offensive” against rebels in the war-torn country’s west.

In a rare televised speech, Gen. Ali Ayoub said the Russian strikes have facilitated an expanded military operation to eliminate “terrorists” – a term the Syrian government uses to refer to all armed opposition to President Bashar Assad.

“For the Russians to have done that without giving any warning is further indication that they’re not thinking through the consequences of their conduct”, Carter said.

“A year ago, when we did this interview, there was a few saber-rattling between the United States and Russian Federation on the Ukrainian border”, Kroft said.

The Republican chair of the Senate homeland security committee suggested last week that personnel on the ground could set up safe zones for Syrians displaced by the country’s ongoing civil war.

Although Moscow admitted it struck non-ISIL targets, calling them “other” terrorist groups, it continues to assert that there have been no Syrian civilian casualties during any of its operations. That report also quoted locals as saying the explosion had broken windows.

“Now the Russian air strikes have ground support”, said Bilal.

Carter said Moscow has been reckless in its military commitment, risking clashes with USA and other planes targeting Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Syria as part of a 60-plus member coalition.

“In contrast to CNN, we do not talk with reference to anonymous sources”, the Russian Defence Ministry said.

“No matter how unpleasant and unexpected for our colleagues in the Pentagon and Langley was yesterday’s high-precision strike on Islamic State (of Iraq and the Levant) infrastructure in Syria, the fact remains that all missiles launched from our ships have found their targets,”Russian defense ministry’s spokesman Maj”.

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said there had been a “troubling escalation” in Moscow’s air campaign. And we say that the actions of the coalition are not effective in our view for this very reason, because it is not possible to fight IS from the air.

US and Russian military officials have yet to establish a reliable communication channel to avoid potentially tragic accidents between Russian and U.S.-led forces operating in Syrian airspace. According to the Syrian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the government push is concentrated in the adjacent provinces of Hama and Idlib where rebels have been advancing in the past months.