Russia reports on airstrikes

Kremlin: Islamic State storage area, command center fall

In this image from video provided by the Syrian activist group Qasioun News and verified by The Associated Press, Syrians look through the rubble of a building in Dair al-Asafeer outside Damascus after it was hit Thursday in a Russian airstrike.
In this image from video provided by the Syrian activist group Qasioun News and verified by The Associated Press, Syrians look through the rubble of a building in Dair al-Asafeer outside Damascus after it was hit Thursday in a Russian airstrike.

MOSCOW -- A Russian defense official Saturday issued the first detailed report on damage inflicted on the Islamic State group after four days of airstrikes in Syria, saying Russian bombers destroyed a command and control center of the extremist group near its stronghold in Raqqa.

Since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the start of an air campaign against extremists in Syria on Wednesday, the Pentagon and other Western countries also trying to stop the advance of Islamic State fighters have accused the Kremlin of targeting its airstrikes on rebel militias trying to depose Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Assad is a key Kremlin ally in the Middle East, and Putin has made no secret of his aim to prevent Assad from being driven out of Damascus, creating a power vacuum that could be filled by the ascendant warriors of Islamic State and other extremist groups.

Saturday's statement on the results of Russian bombing raids carried out over the previous 24 hours framed the Kremlin's involvement in the Syrian conflict as similar to the anti-terrorism objectives of the U.S.-led coalition that has been bombing the militants for more than a year.

Russian military spokesman Maj.-Gen. Igor Konashenkov said the warplanes flew 20 missions in Syria over the past day, hitting nine Islamic State targets. He said an Islamic State command post and a weapons storage bunker were destroyed in the area of Raqqa, the extremists' de facto capital.

Col.-Gen. Andrei Kartapolov, a top official in the Russian military's general staff, said Russian pilots had flown more than 60 sorties since Wednesday, targeting Islamic State command posts, ammunition storehouses and weapons-production factories.

"Our intelligence has determined that the militants are leaving the areas they control. Panic and desertion have begun in their ranks," Kartapolov said in a briefing transcript posted on the Russian Defense Ministry's Facebook page. "We will not only continue attacks by our airplanes, but will increase their intensity."

An airstrike in the Jisr al-Shughur district of Idlib province by Russian bombers "eliminated storage bases for military hardware used by militants for preparation of terrorist attacks," said Konashenkov, adding that another bombing in the same neighborhood "completely destroyed depots with ammunition and equipment situated at the base."

Fortifications, munitions depots and seven pieces of unspecified military hardware near Maarrat al-Numan were also destroyed by the Russian air force, which used guided missiles, Konashenkov said.

In Damascus, an unnamed Syrian military official was quoted by state TV as saying the "concentrated and precise" airstrikes destroyed a command center in the central town of Latamneh in Hama province.

The first airstrikes by Russia on Wednesday and Thursday were said by U.S. and other European defense officials to have been targeted on Syrian opposition fighters farther west than the Islamic State-held territory around Raqqa and stretching east and across the Iraqi border.

Kremlin officials and the media have rejected the accusations as "a war of disinformation" being waged against Russia as it tries to eradicate the extremists the U.S.-led air campaign has failed to contain.

The Russian airstrikes that began Wednesday mainly have targeted central and northwestern Syria, strategic regions that are the gateway to Assad's strongholds in Damascus and along the Mediterranean coast.

Later Saturday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said warplanes believed to be Russian attacked the central town of Hobeit in Idlib province. The air raid came as hundreds of people fled their homes in areas near Hobeit, fearing a ground offensive by government forces, activists said.

At least six people were killed in airstrikes, including a family of five and a rescue worker who was wounded while searching for victims, according to a spokesman for the rescue workers and a local anti-government activist.

Turkey-based activists Mohammed Kanaan and Ahmad al-Ahmad said the army has informed residents of the nearby village of Kfar Nabboudeh, which agreed to a truce with government forces months ago, that troops want to pass through the village on their way to the rebel-held areas of Hobeit and Khan Sheikhoun.

Both activists said that the army has informed residents of Kfar Nabboudeh through mediators that no one in the village will be harmed unless they attack government forces.

"There is intense shelling on the areas in preparation for a ground offensive," al-Ahmad, who is in contact with activists on the ground, said via Skype. He added that many people fled from the two rebel-held areas toward northern regions close to the Turkish border.

Kanaan said the Russian warplanes have "massive destruction strength." He added that militants in southern Idlib and northern Hama are getting prepared to fight against troops once the offensive begins.

The Observatory's chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said the first three days of Russian airstrikes on Syria have killed 39 civilians and 14 militants, without saying whether the fighters included Islamic State members.

The Observatory said Russian warplanes struck a hospital in the mountains of the coastal province of Latakia, causing damage but no casualties.

In Iraq, Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi told reporters that Baghdad welcomes the idea of Russian warplanes attacking the Islamic State in Iraq as well.

Politically, the main Western-backed opposition group and dozens of rebel factions said a plan by the U.N. chief envoy to end Syria's civil war will not work in its present form and needs major amendments.

The National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces said the amendments needed to make it clear that Assad and top officials in his authority have no place in any political process and that government security agencies be dissolved.

The statement issued late Friday came hours after Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said his country will participate in U.N.-led working groups toward a third round of Geneva talks on the fate of the country.

Al-Moallem stressed that the working groups proposed by the U.N.'s special envoy on Syria, Staffan de Mistura, are nonbinding.

The foreign minister described them as "brainstorming" sessions meant to prepare for new talks sometime in the future.

The rebel groups that signed the statement included the powerful Ahrar al-Sham and Islam Army.

The statement said the Russian airstrikes show that Moscow, which hosted several rounds of talks among rival Syrian groups, "was never a fair mediator but part of the conflict and a main ally for the criminal regime."

Information for this article was contributed by Carol J. Williams of the Los Angeles Times; by Albert Aji, Jim Heintz, Bassem Mroue and Sylvie Corbet of The Associated Press; and by Hwaida Saad, Kareem Fahim and Anne Barnard of The New York Times.

A Section on 10/04/2015

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