MOSCOW—Reacting to criticism that it is targeting opponents of the Syrian government, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted on Thursday that Russia’s airstrikes in Syria are targeting not only ISIS extremists but also other groups.
Russia on Wednesday carried out its first airstrikes in Syria in what President Vladimir Putin called a pre-emptive strike against the extremists. Twenty airstrikes had destroyed a command center of ISIS extremists as well as ammunition depots, the defense ministry said.
Moscow insisted that it was targeting ISIS extremists while U.S. officials and other cast doubt on the claim, saying the Russians appeared to be attacking opposition groups fighting Syrian government forces.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that Russia is going after ISIS extremists as well as a “list” of other groups.
“These organizations are well known and the targets are chose in coordination with the armed forces of Syria,” he said, without giving specific names.
Sergei Ivanov, chief of Putin’s staff, said on Wednesday that “the operation’s target is solely air support for the Syrian government forces in their fight against the ISIS.”
Speaking later in the day, Putin said Russia would be fighting “gangs of international terrorists” and then went to talk about ISIS.
Asked Thursday whether Putin was satisfied the way the Russian campaign was going, Peskov said it was “too early” to say.
Speaking in Paris, Russian ambassador to France Alexander Orlov insisted that Russian warplanes in Syria were hitting at the same extremists targeted by the United States and contradicted American criticism that its military failed to coordinate the airstrikes, describing the allegations as a “war of disinformation.”
