Russia continued air strikes on western Syria for the second day as hundreds of Iranian forces arrived in the civil war-torn country to carry out a major ground offensive in support of President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday.
According to Lebanese sources, Russian jets bombed camps near the cities of Hama and Homs. Although Russia insists its air campaigns are aimed against ISIS, the region is mostly held by the Free Syrian Army, a rebel group supported by US and allies. The conflict puts Russia and US against each other for the first time since Cold War.
The Free Syrian Army had been trained by the CIA in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, part of a programme Washington says is aimed at supporting groups that oppose both Islamic State and Assad.
A Reuters report says, hundreds of Iranian troops had reached Syria in the past 10 days with weapons to mount a major ground offensive, backed by Assad’s Lebanese Hezbollah allies and Shi’ite militia fighters from Iraq. Russia will provide air support which may mark the beginning of a turning point in the war.
While Russia and US both claim their target is the Islamic State, the two nations have sharp differences in their views on how to resolve the conflict. The 4-year-old civil war has claimed lives of more than 250,000 people so far and rendered about 10 million people homeless, giving rise to a global refugee crisis.
Washington and its allies oppose both Islamic State and Assad, believing he must leave power in any peace settlement. Washington says a central part of its strategy is building “moderate” insurgents to fight against both Assad and Islamic State, although so far it has struggled to find many fighters to accept its training.
Moscow supports the Syrian president and believes his government should be the centrepiece of international efforts to fight extremist groups. It appears to be using the common campaign against Islamic State as a pretext to strike against groups supported by Washington and its allies, as a way of defending a Damascus government with which Moscow has been allied since the Cold War.