Fresh Russian Raids on ISIL Syria Stronghold
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Russian bombing raids on Syria entered their fourth day on Saturday, striking ISIL main stronghold after the Kremlin faced allegations from the West for targeting the so-called "moderate groups".
A strong ally of Syria's President Bashar Assad, Moscow began sorties over the country on Wednesday in what it said would be a prolonged aerial campaign against ISIL and other extremist groups.
But it has been accused by the United States and its allies of instead targeting mainly Western-backed opponents of President Bashar al-Assad, with US President Barack Obama claiming that its strategy was a "recipe for disaster".
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has clearly stated that ISIL is not his military's only target, as other terrorist groups will also be pursued.
"If it looks like a terrorist, if it walks like a terrorist, if it acts like a terrorist, if it fights like a terrorist, it's a terrorist," he told reporters at the UN General Assembly in New York
Moscow said Saturday that its jets had destroyed an ISIL command post near the group's main Raqqa stronghold as well as an underground bunker, AFP reported.
"Over the past 24 hours, SU-34 and SU-24M jets of the Russian airborne formation in Syria made more than 20 sorties over nine Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant infrastructure facilities," the defense ministry said.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Russian strikes "hit ISIL positions west of Raqqa overnight and explosions were heard in the city".
Raqqa has acted as the extremist group's de facto Syrian "capital" since 2013.
The UK-based group which relies on a network of sources on the ground for its information, said Russian jets had killed 12 militants in Raqqa this week.
Russia said its strikes this week had completely destroyed ISIL positions in northern Aleppo province, neighboring Idlib province and in Hama in central Syria.
A US-led coalition has been bombing ISIL positions in Syria since September 2014, but Moscow says the coalition has only pretended to target ISIL forces for over a year.
On Wednesday, the Russian upper House of Parliament unanimously approved President Vladimir Putin's request to deploy the Russian force abroad, focusing on anti-ISIL air strikes in Syria, after Syrian President Bashar Assad turned to him for assistance.
Russia says it follows the international law as, unlike the US-led coalition, it began strikes after a formal request from the government in Damascus.
