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Russia says its planes struck 10 ISIS targets in Syria | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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In this photo made from the footage taken from Russian Defense Ministry official website on October 3, 2015, a bomb explosion is seen in Syria during Russian airstrikes. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)


In this photo made from the footage taken from Russian Defense Ministry official website on October 3, 2015, a bomb explosion is seen in Syria during Russian airstrikes. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

In this photo made from the footage taken from Russian Defense Ministry official website on October 3, 2015, a bomb explosion is seen in Syria during Russian airstrikes. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

Moscow and Manchester, Reuters—Russian planes have flown 20 sorties in Syria and struck 10 Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) targets in the past 24 hours, the country’s defense ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

Russia has said it would step up its airstrikes in Syria, escalating a military intervention which Moscow launched on Wednesday to weaken ISIS militants, but which Western powers say aims to support President Bashar Al-Assad.

“As a result of our airstrikes on [ISIS] targets, we have managed to disrupt their control system, the terrorist organization’s supply lines, and also caused significant damage to the infrastructure used to prepare acts of terror,” the ministry said.

It said the strikes, conducted by SU-34, SU-24M and SU-25 planes, had hit targets in the Idlib and Raqqa provinces, including a terrorist training camp and a suicide belt factory.

The strikes, which it called pinpoint, had also destroyed three ammunition stores and four ISIS command centers, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Sunday that Vladimir Putin’s decision to take military action in Syria was a “terrible mistake.”

“They are backing the butcher Assad, which is a terrible mistake for them and for the world. It’s going to make the region more unstable,” Cameron told the BBC on the first day of his Conservative Party’s annual conference in the northern city of Manchester.

“Most of the Russian airstrikes, as far as we’ve been able to see so far, have been in parts of Syria not controlled by [ISIS], but controlled by other opponents of the regime,” Cameron said.