Message #59789

[Psalm 51:17]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/02/world/middleeast/russia-syria-airstrikes-isis.html?_r=1
10/1/15
Russia Carries Out Airstrikes in Syria for 2nd Day

BEIRUT, Lebanon — In a second day of raids in Syria, Russian warplanes carried out a new round of airstrikes on Thursday in the northwestern province of Idlib that targeted not the Islamic State but a rival insurgent coalition, according to accounts from journalists and activists.

Russia’s entry into the Syrian conflict, which started on Wednesday with a bombing attack on Syrian opposition fighters, has been angrily condemned by United States officials. They fear that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is using their shared goal of defeating the Islamic State as a pretext for weakening other opponents of Syria’s embattled president, Bashar al-Assad. Mr. Putin says that Mr. Assad is a bulwark against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL; President Obama says that Mr. Assad must go.

On Thursday, Al Mayadeen, a Lebanon-based news channel that leans toward the Syrian government, reported that Russia was targeting “a known list of terrorist organizations” that it had agreed on with the Syrian Army.

Mostapha al-Nayrab, an antigovernment activist in Idlib Province, said that Russian warplanes had bombed many areas in the south and west of the province, hitting both insurgent bases and a mosque where five civilians were killed.

Russian officials, however, insisted that they had hit four “objects of the Islamic State”: a “terrorist headquarters” and arms depot near the city of Idlib; a three-story command bunker near Hama, a city about 60 miles to the south; and a bomb factory in Homs Province, which is farther to the south. The airstrikes began on Wednesday to the north and northeast of the city of Homs. The Islamic State has been most active in areas significantly to the east of those areas.

The Russian state news agency RIA reported that airstrikes by the Syrian military, which is working with the Russian Air Force, had killed 107 militants, including three commanders of the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, near Homs.

Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Russian Senate, denied the charge that Russia was overlooking Islamic State targets and instead attacking other opponents of Mr. Assad’s. “There is no evidence able to prove these groundless claims that are being spread today,” he said.

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