Russian cruise missiles hit Syrian rebels as warplanes back up Assad regime ground offensive

8 Oct 2015,

Russian warships launched cruise missile strikes against insurgent targets in Syria, as Vladimir Putin's warplanes went into action again in support of a major ground offensive launched by regime troops.

Mr Putin and his defence minister Sergei Shoigu said 26 missiles, launched from four warships in the Caspian Sea, hit 11 Islamic State targets inside Syria.

In another major development, Russia also coordinated air strikes with a Syrian army ground offensive in Syria's west, taking on rebels who have threatened Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's home province of Latakia.

The attacks came as the Russian president celebrated his 63rd birthday with an ice hockey match in Sochi on the Black Sea, as supporters compared him to a range of figures, including the Buddha and Neo from The Matrix.

Russian efforts "will be synchronised with the actions of the Syrian army on the ground and the actions of our air force will effectively support the offensive operation of the Syrian army", Mr Putin said at a televised meeting with Mr Shoigu in Sochi.

The missiles were launched by warships in the Caspian Sea, and Russia said they passed over Iran and Iraq to reach their targets, covering what Mr Shoigu described as a distance of almost 1,500 km.

The terrain-hugging Kalibr cruise missiles, known by NATO by the codename Sizzler, fly at an altitude of 50 metres and are accurate to within three metres, the Russian defence ministry said.

The missiles also crossed through the region used by US and Australian jets bombing Islamic State targets.

Meanwhile videos posted on social media sites, said to be shot in Syria's west, recorded a devastating series of air strikes.

Crucially, for the first time, these were coordinated with Syrian army rocket attacks and a ground assault.

The combined attacks focused on an area in Hama and neighbouring Idlib province, held by a rebel alliance branding itself the Army of Conquest.

It includes the Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusrah and a slew of other Islamist factions, but Islamic State is not in the area.

The Army of Conquest has sought to expand into Hama from Idlib and seize high ground to target the neighbouring regime stronghold of Latakia province.

In one video a defiant militant, said to be from a US-trained rebel group, claimed a Russian airstrike had destroyed its weapons depot.

"We were able to escape safely," he said.

"We are not scared of Russia, or anyone who supports it. Thank God, we will continue to fight you Bashar, without ammunition, or bullets."

A Syrian military source told the AFP news agency government troops had begun a broad ground operation on Wednesday near the village of Latmeen in Hama province, aided by Russian air cover.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "many raids, believed to be from Russian warplanes, killed six people" including two children in Maraat al-Numan in Idlib.

The head of the observatory, Rami Abdulrahman, said ground attacks by Syrian government forces and their militia allies using heavy surface-to-surface missile bombardments hit at least four insurgent positions and there were heavy clashes.

Iraq leans toward Russia in war on Islamic State

Western countries, Arab states and Turkey, who are waging their own bombing campaign against IS, say Moscow is using the militant threat as a pretext to target president Bashar al-Assad's domestic foes.

Russia says the Assad government should be the centrepiece of international efforts to combat extremism.

Mr Shoigu said Russia was ready to agree a document with the United States to coordinate actions in Syria.

US defence secretary Ash Carter, however, said it would not cooperate militarily with Russia's "tragically flawed" strategy in Syria but was prepared to carry out basic, technical discussions on the safety of coalition warplanes.

"We are not prepared to cooperate in a strategy which as we explained is flawed, tragically flawed on Russia's part," Mr Carter said during a trip to Rome, renewing US accusations that Russia's strikes were not focused on Islamic State militants.

Russia's drive for more clout in the Middle East includes a new security and intelligence-sharing agreement with Iran, Iraq and Syria with a command centre in Baghdad.

Iraq's head of parliament has now hinted it soon might request Russian air strikes against Islamic State on its soil and wanted Moscow to have a bigger role than the United States in the war against the militant group.

"In the upcoming few days or weeks, I think Iraq will be forced to ask Russia to launch air strikes, and that depends on their success in Syria," Hakim al-Zamili, a leading Shiite politician, said.

Conflict must not spark Russia-NATO crisis: Turkey

In Turkey, the prime minister said he did not want the conflict in Syria turning into a crisis between Russia and NATO, nor into a Russian-Turkish dispute.

Ahmet Davutoglu said his nation, a member of the NATO alliance, "will not make any concessions in the context of our border and air space security", in comments broadcast live by state television.

Since launching air strikes in Syria last week, Russian planes twice entered Turkish airspace and an unidentified Mig-29 harassed Turkish jets on Monday, according to the Turkish military.

Mr Davutoglu said only two of Russia's 57 air strikes in Syria have hit Islamic State, while the rest have been against the moderate opposition, the only forces fighting IS in north-western Syria.

A spokesman for Turkey's ruling AK Party said the nation would view further violations of its air space as a threat, but welcomed a Russian offer to meet and discuss the issue.

"We find Russia's request to 'come together and explain' positive," said party spokesman Omer Celik.

"Russia is a friend, but if the repeated incursions continue, we will perceive it as a threat and not as friendly behaviour."

ABC/Reuters/AFP