Seven nations call on Russia to cease attacks on Syrian opposition

In a joint statement with the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Gulf Arab allies, Turkey said Russia’s actions constituted a “further escalation” of the conflict and would only fuel more extremism.

Orlov said Russian officials warned the Americans “via confidential channels” of where they planned to strike.

Alexei Pushkov, the head of the foreign affairs committee in Russia’s parliament, added that the USA had only “pretended” to bomb IS and promised that Russia’s campaign would be much more effective.

It was the second straight day of Russian raids in Syria, where Moscow on Wednesday launched its first military engagement outside the former Soviet Union since the occupation of Afghanistan in 1979.

20 airstrikes were carried out on Thursday, resulting in the destruction of an Islamic State command center and an ammunition factory, the Russian MoD said.

He said that all airstrikes must be directed exclusively against the Islamic state, and not against moderate opposition groups in Syria.

“Four civilians, including a child and a woman, were killed in raids conducted by Russian military aircraft“, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In Moscow itself, popular reactions to Russia’s military engagement in Syria were negative, says Baev.

Merkel, Putin and Hollande meet later Friday to discuss a political solution to Ukraine’s conflict, after a long-awaited weapons withdrawal agreement this week and a few other signs of progress.

“As for media reports claiming that the civilian population is suffering, we are prepared for such information attacks”.

Putin has said Russian Federation would be fighting “gangs of worldwide terrorists”.

“These organizations are well known and the targets are chosen in coordination with the armed forces of Syria“, Peskov said without giving specific names, according to the AP.

During a news conference at the United Nations on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov obliquely dismissed concerns that his country was targeting a wider range of groups in Syria that originally indicated.

Syria’s Ambassador to Russia Riad Haddad confirmed in an interview with CNN that Russian troops are not only targeting ISIS troops, but also other rebel factions fighting Syrian army forces. USA and Russian officials say they’ll open communications between their military groups in the region to avoid accidents or potential clashes.

“The problem is their motives are just not trustworthy, and the strikes that… we saw over the past 24 hours have not been targeted against ISIL positions”.

“It is Daesh which must be targeted, not other groups”, Hollande said yesterday.

The ministry said an IS training camp and command post in northwest Idlib province were also hit.

Jaish al-Fateh has fought fierce battles against Islamic State in a few areas in Syria and has made territorial gains against Syrian regime forces in Idlib in recent months.