Syrian troops and allied militia backed by a fresh wave of Russian air strikes and cruise missiles fired from warships attacked rebel forces and hope to recapture a major territory in the west of the country.
The assault focused on western areas where rebel advances earlier this year had threatened the coastal region vital to President Bashar al-Assad’s support base.
The Russian Defence Ministry said it fired missiles from ships in the Caspian Sea for a second day and had hit weapons factories, arms dumps, command centres and training camps.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials said they believed four Russian cruise missiles bound for Syria had crashed en route in Iran, however, Russia’s Defence Ministry insisted the missiles had reached their targets in Syria.
Since Russia began air strikes last week it has described all its targets as belonging to the Islamic State group, although most have been in areas controlled by other rebel movements where Islamic State has little or no presence.
On Thursday, Moscow said its air force hit 27 Islamic State targets in the provinces of Homs, Hama and Raqqa, while Kirby said Secretary of State John Kerry had expressed his concern to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov by telephone that most of the targets hit so far were not related to Islamic State.
The U.S. has been leading a separate air campaign against Islamic State targets for a year, and the arrival of Russian war planes last week means the Cold War superpower foes are now flying combat missions in the same air space for the first time since World War Two.
Washington and its allies who want Assad to leave power have accused Moscow of using a campaign against Islamic State as a pretext to target Assad’s other enemies, many of which receive help from countries that oppose him.
But Russia, allied to Damascus since the Cold War, says Assad’s government should be part of an international campaign against extremists.
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