Russian warships launch rockets on Islamic State in Syria

Russian Federation denies claims that its strikes have hit mainly non-ISIL targets.

Carter said Moscow’s strategy of bolstering Assad would backfire.

He continued, “We also see increased naval presence of Russian ships, naval capabilities outside Syria or the eastern part of the Mediterranean”.

The news of the missile attack came via a televised meeting between the Russian defense minister, Sergey K. Shoigu and the President Vladimir Putin.

Russia took Israeli interests into account, not least because of the large Russian-speaking community of over a million who have emigrated to the Jewish state since the mid-1980s, he said.

While the USA has been flinging cruise missiles at its enemies for decades, this is the first time the Russians have done so.

“We know how hard it is to carry out this kind of anti-terrorist operation”, Putin told Shoigu. “But what has been done so far deserves a highly positive assessment”.

The military intervention in Syria is set out in an agreement between Moscow and Tehran that says Russian air strikes will support ground operations by Iranian, Syrian and Lebanese Hezbollah forces, said one of the senior regional sources. The strikes have hit the Army of Conquest, an Islamist faction that includes the Nusra Front, Al Qaedas Syrian affiliate, as well as more-secular groups that often fight alongside, including a few that had received American aid. France has repeatedly said that once a political transition had occurred and Assad had gone, government troops and moderate rebels would need to join forces to defeat Islamic State.

Maj. Mustafa Alkenj, a commander with the 13th division of the Free Syrian Army, said his forces managed to repel the assault.

A video map released by Russia’s defence ministry showed the missiles launched from warships in the southern Caspian Sea and flying close to 1,500 km through Iranian and Iraqi airspace before hitting targets in Syria. According to the Syrian official, the government push is concentrated in the adjacent provinces of Hama and Idlib where rebels have been advancing in the past months.

The alliance has sought to expand into Hama from Idlib and seize high ground to target the neighbouring regime stronghold of Latakia province.

“It was the heaviest Russian attack on Palmyra”, Observatory director Rami Abdulrahman said. It says it holds the Syrian government responsible for any spillover of violence. Russian Federation has so far refused to make a distinction between the Army of Conquest and the Islamic State, labeling both groups as terrorist.

The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday angrily dismissed reports that its planes had launched air strikes against Palmyra as false, the TASS news agency reported.

The missiles mark a major escalation of Russian involvement in the region and a growing crisis for USA policy in Syria. Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member that shares a border with Syria, has already accused Russian Federation of violating its airspace.

A Syrian official and activists said government troops pushed into areas in the central province of Hama and south of Idlib in the boldest multipronged attack on rebel-held areas, benefiting from the Russian air cover.

Meanwhile, the issue has surfaced at every stop made by U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter this week during his travels in Europe. The precision weapons hit all intended targets. “We believe this is a fundamental mistake”, Carter told a press conference in Rome, referring to IS by an alternative acronym.