Roundup: Russian airstrikes achieve tangible results in Syria

A senior military officer said Sunday that the Russian airstrikes had achieved "tangible results" since they started a few days ago, unlike the U.S.-led airstrikes with "no actual results on ground."

"The Russian airstrikes that have been targeting the armed terrorist groups are a serious and a real contribution in the course of countering terrorism, unlike the alleged strikes by the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition," the military officer told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The strikes, which started on Wednesday, had notable results, as many terrorists have fled their positions as a result of the Russian strikes.

"There Russian airstrikes have a tangible efficiency," he said. "There are information that affirms that there have been direct results to these strikes which were clear with the escape of members of the terrorist groups and there were even division and dispute among the rebels, which came against the backdrop of these strikes."

He said the militants have not only fled their positions to Turkey, but many IS members have fled from al-Raqqa province, which is the de facto capital of the IS, toward the Iraqi territories.

He added that the Russian airstrikes embarrass the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition in terms of exposing the lack of seriousness of the U.S. strikes, which have been taking place for over a year.

Meanwhile, the pro-government al-Watan newspaper said Sunday that the Russian air forces carried out 60 strikes against 50 positions of the jihadi groups, forcing over 600 IS terrorists to flee their positions.

The paper said "the Russian strikes have achieved what 3,000 U.S. strikes failed to achieve in Syria."

A day earlier, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based watchdog group, said Russian war jets struck positions of IS militants in al-Raqqa and rebel positions in the Turkman Mountains in the northern countryside of the coastal city of Latakia.

The pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV said the Russian airstrikes targeted a command center of the IS in al-Raqqa.

It added that the Syrian army is poised to launch a wide-scale offensive under the Russian air support against the jihadi groups in the southern part of Hama province in central Syria.

Citing a military source, the TV said the main mission of the Syrian army there is to secure the road connecting Homs province to Hama, a move important to secure the link between the Syrian capital Damascus through the central provinces of Hama and Homs all the way toward the Syrian coast.

The Russian warplanes started Wednesday its airstrikes against the rebel positions in several Syrian areas, marking the first Russian military involvement in the war on the terrorist groups in Syria.

Damascus has confirmed it had asked Russia for military aid, saying the Russian air force aid to Syria has come upon the request of President Bashar al-Assad, according to the state news agency SANA.

The Russian leadership has recently amplified its military aid to the Syrian military forces. Russian officials have recently stressed that Moscow will continue providing military aid, including specialists, to Damascus.

Russian officials said the increasing military supplies aim at combating terrorism in accordance with international law. Endit