MOSCOW—Russian military jets carried out airstrikes in Syria for the first time on Wednesday, targeting what Moscow said were ISIS positions. U.S. officials and others cast doubt on that claim, saying the Russians appeared to be attacking opposition groups fighting Syrian government forces.
President Vladimir Putin sought to portray the airstrikes as a pre-emptive attack against the Islamic extremists who have taken over large parts of Syria and Iraq. Russia estimates at least 2,400 of its own citizens are already fighting alongside extremists in Syria and Iraq.
“If they (extremists) succeed in Syria, they will return to their home country, and they will come to Russia, too,” Putin said in a televised speech at a government session.
The United States and Russia both agree on the need to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), but are in dispute about what to do about Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government. At the U.N. General Assembly, President Barack Obama said the United States and Russia could work together on a political transition, but only if Assad’s leaving power was the result. Putin is Assad’s most powerful backer.
The Russian airstrikes targeted positions, vehicles, and warehouses that Moscow believes belong to ISIS, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told Russian news agencies.
A senior U.S. official, however, said the airstrikes don’t appear to be targeting ISIS, because the extremists aren’t in the western part of the country, beyond Homs, where the strikes were directed.
