Syria’s Al-Qaida Says Russian Federation Launching Crusader Campaign

Al-Jolani’s call to action comes a day after Moscow said that Russian men involved in a suspected “terrorist plot” to bomb the Moscow transport network had been trained by IS in Syria, AP reported, citing Russian intelligence sources.

There was widespread panic, but it was not immediately clear if anyone had been wounded or killed.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said the rockets were fired from the eastern edges of the capital, where Islamist rebels are entrenched.

An Associated Press reporter was outside the embassy on Tuesday morning when the first shell slammed into the compound in central Damascus and smoke billowed from inside. One mortar landed on a residential building, and another in a sports ground, he said.

The head of al-Qaeda’s offshoot in Syrian has called on followers to carry out attacks in Russia following Moscow’s airstrikes in the country, raising the specter of blowback on Russian soil for its military intervention to aid Syria’s embattled government. “And if they kill from our soldiers, kill from theirs”.

Al-Nusra head Abu Mohamed al-Jolani said in an audio message released Monday that the extremists should go for “an eye for an eye”.

Russian Federation began launching airstrikes against insurgents in Syria on September 30.

Golani promised to “make the Russians forget the horrors of what they faced in Afghanistan”.

Russia has said its aerial raids are targeting IS, a rival of Al-Nusra, but other rebel groups have also been heavily targeted by Russian strikes.

Russian Federation has dramatically intensified its bombing campaign in recent days and has said its heavy bombing campaign had struck many Nusra and Islamic State targets in Syria from ammunition depots to training camps to military bases.

A US-led air coalition fighting IS in Syria has also targeted Al-Nusra on several occasions.

Jolani called on armed opposition groups to set aside their differences until both air wars had been defeated.

Golani, describing the Russian intervention as a new Christian crusade from the East, said it came only after a “string of victories made by the mujahedeen” threatened Assad’s rule.