US defense secretary confirms Russian cruise missiles intended for Syria

Officials said that they have not received any information supporting such an incident.

In Tehran, state media reported that a senior commander in Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard was killed by the Islamic State group on the outskirts of Aleppo city, but it was not immediately clear whether Gen. Hossein Hamedani’s death was related to the new IS offensive.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the advance by the extremists was the most significant in months.

Wednesday’s bombardment was the first naval salvo of Russia’s week-old military intervention in Syria, where it has already launched more than 100 airstrikes against the Islamic State and factions of Islamist and U.S.-backed rebel forces opposed to Assad.

Local television, Tom reports, said “that something crashed and exploded near the northern city of Tekab, shattering windows and leaving a large crater”.

Esmail Kosari, an Iranian politician, said Hamedani helped co-ordination between Syrian armed forces and the voluntary forces in their fight against Isil.

“Vladimir Putin says the United States would have been better off giving Russian Federation “0 million” instead of funding the Free Syrian Army.

“It’s disturbing that yet another type of cluster munition is being used in Syria given the harm they cause to civilians for years to come”, said Nadim Houry, HRW’s deputy Middle East director.

“Therefore, no matter how distasteful and “surprised” it is for our colleagues in the Pentagon and Langley, the strike yesterday with precision weapons infrastructure at ISIS (Islamic State/ISIL) in Syria hit its targets”, they wrote.

Washington expressed alarm this week after Moscow failed to quickly answer proposals made during previous talks, even as Russian Federation launched cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea and repeatedly violated Turkish air space.

Russian Federation started launching airstrikes in Syria on Sept.30, facilitating the government ground offensive.

The strikes also destroyed six command posts and communication centres, six ammunition depots, 17 training camps, three underground targets in Latakia, two multiple artillery rocket systems and 17 vehicles and armoured vehicles, among other targets, the military said.

The operation reportedly involved 26 cruise missiles hitting 11 targets in Syria.

Iran is the main regional ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has provided military and economic support during Syria´s four-year-old civil war.