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| Russia hits 8 ISIS targets in one day with 20 combat flights in Syria – Russian military |
- Russia will succeed where West probably didn’t want to – Assad’s aide
- Moscow blasts ‘infowar’ following civilian deaths accusations
Russia yesterday struck eight Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) targets in Syria, the country’s Defense Ministry said, adding that "civilian infrastructure" was avoided during the operations.
“Today, Russian aerospace force jets delivered pinpoint strikes on eight ISIS terror group targets in Syria. In total, 20 flights were made,” spokesperson for the Russian Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, said.
“As a result, arms and fuel depots and military equipment were hit. ISIS coordination centers in the mountains were totally destroyed,” he added.
Konashenkov said that all the flights took place after air surveillance and careful verification of the data provided by the Syrian military. He stressed that Russian jets did not target any civilian infrastructure and avoided these territories.
“Russian jets did not use weapons on civilian infrastructure or in its vicinity,” he said.
Earlier in the day, the Russian military announced the start of air operations in Syria in order to help the government fight terrorist forces. Syrian state television named at least seven areas targeted by the air strikes.
They included areas around the cities of Homs and Hama, which are 44 kilometers apart, according to various media reports.
Moscow blasts ‘infowar’ following civilian deaths accusations
The statement by the Defense Ministry refuted earlier reports about civilian casualties that Russian air strikes allegedly led to.
Reuters reported that Russia targeted opposition rebel groups in Homs province instead of Islamic State forces. The agency cited Syrian opposition chief Khaled Khoja, who put the death toll of the bombardment at 36 civilians.
"Russia is intending not to fight ISIL [Islamic State], but to prolong the life of [Syrian President Bashar] Assad," Khoja said.
Similar claims were made by the BBC, Fox News, Al Jazeera and numerous other news outlets.
However, US Secretary of Defense, Ashton Carter, said that Pentagon can’t confirm these allegations, though NATO declared it was concerned by the reports that targets other than ISIS could have been hit.
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Moscow harshly criticized the reports, labeling them an information war.
“Russia didn’t even begin its operation against Islamic State… Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov didn’t even utter his first words at the UN Security Council, but numerous reports already emerged in the media that civilians are dying as a result of the Russian operation and that it’s aimed at democratic forces in the country (Syria),” Maria Zakharova, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, told media.
“It’s all an information attack, a war, of which we’ve heard so many times,” she added.
Zakharova also said that she was amazed by the scale and speed of what she called “info injections” into social networks such as “photos of alleged victims” that appeared on the web as soon as the Russian operation began.
“What can I say? We all know perfectly how such pictures are made,” she said, remembering a Hollywood flick ‘Wag the Dog,’ which described the US media reporting on a fake war in Albania.
The spokesman urged the media, including, Western outlets “to turn to top officials in the [Russian] Defense Ministry press service to obtain all required information" about the country’s operation in Syria.
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| Preemptive strike is how you fight terrorism – Putin on Syrian engagement |
Russia will succeed where West probably didn’t want to – Assad’s aide to RT
A Syrian presidential aide has praised Russian air support in the fight against terrorists, slamming the West’s “ineffective” airstrikes. Media adviser Bouthaina Shaaban told RT she believes Russian intervention will help stabilize the situation in Syria.
Speaking on behalf of her country, President Assad’s political and media adviser has said that Syria “hopes” that Russia’s assistance will help Damascus “undermine terrorism” and “restore peace and security”.
“But it’s not only against Islamic State,” Bouthaina Shaaban told RT. “I don’t know why people … why do they forget about Jabhat al-Nusra, although the [UN] Security Council resolution spoke about or considered both Al Nusra and IS a terrorist organization."
“Besides these, there are tens of terrorist organizations in Syria. There are thousands of mercenaries and terrorists coming from all over the world.”
On the first day of Russia-led airstrikes, Russian jets struck eight Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) targets in Syria, while managing to avoid civilian infrastructure, the country’s defense ministry said.
Shortly after Russia announced its operation in Syrian skies, and even before the first bombs fell, reports started to emerge accusing Russia of targeting opposition and Western-backed “moderate” rebel groups in Homs province instead of terrorists. NATO declared that it was “concerned” by these unsubstantiated reports, but Shaaban told RT that the allegations did not sound very credible.
“What I know is – the way Russia did things – that it did it both in full cooperation with the Syrian government; in consultation with the entire world – Putin was asking any country in the world to join in fighting terrorism – and, therefore, I think the style of fighting terrorism is very convincing by Russians, while the alliance that was made by the US and the West did not really either follow the rules of international legitimacy or coordinate with the Syrian government, and didn’t really mean to fight terrorism,” Shaaban said, adding that the US-led operation had proven to be ineffective.
Citing Iraq and Libya as examples, Shaaban has accused the US and its allies of looking “to destroy our countries in order to destroy our civilization, in order to destroy our people”, instead of pursuing peace in Syria.
“The problem right from the beginning wasn’t Assad; the target wasn’t Assad. Just as Libya is destroyed now and they were talking about Gaddafi, and Iraq is destroyed and they were talking about Saddam Hussein,” President Assad’s adviser said.“One thing that is true is that all those carrying arms against the Syrian people, against Syrian institutions – are terrorists. And the Syrian army has been fighting them for the last five years, while the West is looking at our country being destroyed – at our hospitals, at our schools, at our archaeological heritage being absolutely destroyed.”
Russia, on the contrary, Shaaban said is “committed to international legitimacy and to respect of country’s sovereignty.”
“That’s why I feel that the Russians are going to succeed ... [where] the West didn’t or didn’t want to succeed, probably. I’m not sure,” she said.
President Assad’s aide has called on the US and the international community to “wake up and see what’s happening on the ground.”
“It’s very easy to sit in New York and talk about concept, but it’s very different – the truth in Syria,” she said. “And the reality is very different from what the Americans and John Kerry is saying.”
-RT
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