Russian military op in Syria focuses on bringing peace, security back to region

Oct. 9, 2015 - PRLog -- Over the first 7 days of the military operation in Syria that started on September 30, 2015, after request for help from President Bashar Assad, Russian Air Force dealt more damage to the Islamic State terrorist group than the United States did over the past year, report German journalists as the operation marks its first week in progress.

According to foreign media, the US Air Force completed some 57,000 sorties against 7,000 targets between June 2014 and September 2015. Nevertheless, they failed to push back the encroaching Islamic State attackers, with many civilian casualties on the way.

During the Russian operation, more than 120 sorties resulted in destruction of over 100 units of military equipment and over 50 targets, including two communications centers, four factories producing arms and explosives, 17 headquarters and command points, 23 fuel and ammunition storage facilities, a terrorist training center, and several field and recruitment camps.

Reportedly, the recent attacks also heavily demoralized radical Islamists, with over 600 terrorists deserting from Islamic State.

Based on information provided by Russian Ministry of Defense, the mixed Russian Air Force group stationed at Hmeymim airbase 25 km outside Latakia is comprised of over 50 planes and helicopters armed with high-explosive, bunker-busting and glide bombs, as well as high-precision smart missiles. The Russian naval ships of the Caspian flotilla also assisted in the attacks against the terrorists: at night into October 7, they released a salvo of 26 long-range ballistic missiles that struck down 11 objectives controlled by terrorists in Syria.

The Russian operation is coordinated from the dedicated intelligence center in Baghdad that collects, analyzes, consolidates and rapidly distributes tactical information between Syria, Iraq, Iran and Russia to facilitate their operations against IS. In addition, Moscow has called for other countries to support the fight against terrorists by joining the operation or providing intelligence on present locations of Islamic State fighters.

However, the past week was also marked by an intensified aggressive media campaign against Russia, as several foreign media were publishing reports on alleged civilian casualties and rumors of a Russian ground force intervention in the making, using dubious “anonymous sources” to further their claims.

So far, international reaction to the Russian military operation in Syria has been mixed. On October 2, the US, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey appealed for Russia to stop its bombing operation, while Ankara shortly afterwards accused Russia of violating its airspace twice. However, several world leaders changed their stance further into the operation: the US President Barack Obama wished Russia luck in the operation, yet added he will not accept showing support to Bashar Assad, while the German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated the need to involve the President of Syria in the discussion on fighting Islamic State after the four-party talks over the Ukrainian conflict. Moreover, representatives of Kyrgyzstan and Egypt, as well as the head of France’s Front National Marine Le Pen, expressed their support of the Russian course of actions.

Jiri Mastalka, European Parliament deputy (GUE/NGL) for the Czech Republic, member of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, said there are several significant points of differences between Russian and American anti-IS strategy, reminding that the US-founded coalition did not achieve any significant success overall since more than a year ago while Russia has a reasonable chance for success.

“Although it is possible to presume that some of Islamic State’s activities could have been slowed down, its fighters retained some very important territories in Syria as well as in Iraq: big cities like several-million-strong Mosul; oil fields; strategic routes. Still, until now the attempts to cut off propaganda activities, penetration into other territories or establishment of their international contacts have been unsuccessful,” the politician told “PenzaNews” agency.

He also suggested that Russia’s move to begin the air force operation in Syria was a forced defensive measure, while saving Bashar Assad’s regime is not the highest-priority objective.

“There are about 2,400 citizens of Russian Federation within the ranks of Islamic State. If you add the fighters from the Central Asia, approximately 5,000 people from the countries of former Soviet Union are fighting on the side of Islamic State. It is very likely, almost sure, that any other successes of the Islamic State would be followed by the invasion of the terrorist organization into Russia as well as the Central Asia. Come to that, the successes of Taliban during last two weeks in Afghanistan also means this organization is approaching the borders of Tajikistan or China,” the politician added.

He said he believes Moscow has better chances for victory compared to the US-led coalition against the Islamic State, in no smaller part thanks to streamlined exchange of strategic information with Syria, Iraq and Iran.

Full text news agency "PenzaNews":http://penzanews.ru/en/opinion/59682-2015