Russian Air Force hits 50 ISIS targets in Syria over 3 days, ‘significantly’ damaging militants

October 2015 – SYRIA – The Russian Air Force has conducted more than 60 flights and bombed over 50 Islamic State targets in three days, according to Russia’s top armed forces official. He added the strikes have significantly reduced the terrorists’ combat capabilities. ‘The airstrikes were being conducted night and day from the Khmeimim airbase and throughout the whole of Syria. In three days we managed to undermine the terrorists’ material-technical base and significantly reduce their combat potential,’ Lieutenant General Andrey Kartapolov, head of the Main Operation Directorate of the General Staff of Russia’s armed forces, told reporters on Saturday. He added that according to Russian intelligence the militants are fleeing the area that was in their control. ‘There is panic and defection among them. About 600 mercenaries have left their positions and are trying to reach Europe,’ he said.
Washington has notified the Russian Defense Ministry that there were only militants in the areas of Russia’s military operation against IS in Syria, he added. ‘The Americans informed us during contacts that there was no one except terrorists in this region,’ he said. ‘Over the past 24 hours, Sukhoi Su-34 and Su-24M fighter jets have performed 20 sorties and hit nine Islamic State installations,’ Igor Konashenkov, Russia’s Defense Ministry spokesman, reported. Konashenkov added that yesterday evening Russian aircraft went on six sorties, inflicting strikes on three terrorist installations.

This post was published at UtopiatheCollapse on October 4, 2015.