Moscow: Russian jets struck five more Islamic State targets in Syria on Thursday, the defence ministry said, as the country continued its air strikes against the extremist group.
“Russian Sukhoi Su-24M and Sukhoi Su-25M conducted eight flights to strike five IS targets,” defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov was quoted by RIA Novosti state news agency as saying.
Russian jets struck targets in two regions, the province of Idlib in northwest Syria and Hama province in the centre of the war-torn country.
These latest strikes are the third round of bombings Russia has conducted since Wednesday.
“We have prevented Islamic State (IS) fighters from reestablishing a command post in the Hama province that had been destroyed in our air strikes on September 30,” Konashenkov said.
Konashenkov added that information on the result of the strikes would be released at a later time.
The defence ministry said it had also hit an IS training camp in Maaret al-Numan, and a command post in Jisr al-Shughur, both in Idlib province.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the goal of Russia’s operation in Syria was to help the beleaguered forces of President Bashar al-Assad fight the jihadist group.
“The goal [of the Russian operation] is to help the Syrian armed forces in their weak spots in the fight against ISIS and other terrorist and extremist groups,” Peskov was quoted as saying Thursday by Russian news agencies.
