6:53PM GMT 18 Mar 2016
Russian aircraft will contine to fly tens of missions a day against targets in Syria despite a pull out of forces announced by Vladimir Putin earlier this week, military officials in Moscow have said.
Russian airstrikes are supporting a regime offensive against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil) around the ancient city of Palmyra, generals said on Friday, in an apparent signal that the Kremlin will not relinquish direct military support for Bashar Assad despite pulling out the bulk of its forces in Syria.
"Conditions have been created for the encirclement and definitive defeat of Isil armed formations in Palmyra,” Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi, the head of Russia’s National Defence Control Centre, told journalists at a briefing in Moscow.
"Government troops and patriotic forces with the support of the Russian air force are carrying out a large-scale operation to liberate Palmyra," he said. "On average Russian planes are flying 20 to 25 combat sorties each day.”
Isil, which seized control of Palmyra in May last year, is not party to a ceasefire between regime forces and most rebel groups that came into force on February 27.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad meet at the Kremlin in Moscow back in October last year
The announcement came as the terror group claimed to have killed five Russian soldiers fighting alongside regime troops near the city.
"The soldiers of the caliphate, by the grace of God, have killed five Russian soldiers and six members" of the Syrian army, as well as Hezbollah fighters, Isil said in a statement earlier on Friday.
A website linked to Isil, Aamaq, published a video showing the bloodied corpse of a man in military gear that it claimed was a Russian military advisor.
"Four of the Russian soldiers were killed in Qasr al-Halabat west of Palmyra during an attempt to storm the area that IS forces foiled, while the advisor whose corpse was shown in a video distributed by the agency died (Thursday) in the Dawa area," Aamaq claimed.
The footage also showed equipment apparent taken from the body, including a customised AK-74 rifle and a military first aid kit.
Lt. Gen. Rudskoi did not address the terror group’s claims. Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, the chief spokesman for the ministry of defence, declined to comment when asked to respond to the claim.
Although Russia has not formally acknowledged sending ground forces into combat in Syria, it is widely believed to have deployed armour, artillery, and special forces alongside Syrian regime troops.
Vladimir Putin appeared to tacitly acknowledge that when he publicly decorated Maj. Gen. Yuri Yarovitsky, the deputy commander of the First Tank Army of Russia’s Western Military District, at a welcome home ceremony for veterans of the Syrian expedition in the Kremlin on Thursday.
Mr Putin also appeared to refer to the family of a previously unacknowledged casualty of the conflict, which would bring the number of Russian soldiers known to have been killed since the intervention began to five.
Russia launched a five-month bombing campaign in support of Bashar Assad’s beleaguered government forces on September 30 last year.
Mr Putin announced the formal end to the mission in Syria on Monday, and ordered “most” of the contingent there home by the end of the week.
Donald J. Trump
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