Strategic bombers to cruise missiles: Russian Federation steps up attack on ISIS

Russia has intensified strikes on Syrian militants, including from Islamic State, which has claimed responsibility for the attacks that killed 130 people in Paris and for downing a Russian airliner in Egypt last month, killing all 224 on board.

Russian military are writing “For Paris” on bombs destined for targets in Syria, in solidarity with the victims of the attacks in the French capital. At least eight people were killed in 50 air raids in the oil-rich Deir Ezzor province.

He said bombers had struck 15 oil facilities in Syria and 525 trucks this week, costing IS $1.5m (£987,000) a day in sales.

President Vladimir Putin had ordered an escalation of the Russian air campaign earlier this week, vowing “to make the criminals understand that vengeance is imminent”.

According to the Syrian Observatory, an global human rights group formed in the wake of the Syrian Civil War, the Russian airstrike on Friday targeted several farms, “villages, towns and cities in 13 provinces”, instead of any ISIS strongholds in the region.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said that more than 600 rebels had been eliminated as a result of cruise missile strikes at targets in Syrian Deir ez-Zour province.

Earlier this week, Masrour Barzani, the head of intelligence and security in Iraqi Kurdistan, said IS was not significantly weakened by the aerial bombardments of the US-led coalition and Russian Federation. “They might try to do more of this if they are not stopped and they are not kept under pressure”. Putin has ruled out Russian ground action in Syria, a position reaffirmed Friday by his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.

“Our objectives are being fulfilled, and fulfilled well”, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Putin as saying during a video conference with military officials.