Friday 2 October 2015

Syria conflict: Russia air strikes stepped up

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Russia has stepped up its campaign of air strikes against opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.


Moscow said its aircraft had "conducted 18 sorties on 12 positions held by the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in Syria" since Thursday.
Targets included the IS stronghold of Raqqa, but also Aleppo, Hama and Idlib - provinces with little IS presence.
Members of the US-led coalition targeting IS have renewed their criticism of the Russian action.
In a statement, the US, UK, Turkey and other coalition members called on Russia to cease air strikes they said were hitting the Syrian opposition and civilians, adding that they would "only fuel more extremism".
The Syrian opposition and others have suggested non-IS rebel factions opposed to President Assad - the Kremlin's ally - are bearing the brunt of the Russian attacks.
Alexei Pushkov, the head of the foreign affairs committee in Russia's parliament, said the air strikes - which began on Wednesday - could last for three to four months.
He added that the US had only "pretended" to bomb IS, and promised that Russia's campaign would be much more effective.

Russian air strikes - in depth

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