BEIRUT // Russia bombed Syrian rebel targets on Wednesday, according to US officials, hours after politicians in Moscow unanimously voted to authorise air strikes.
The air raids are a sharp escalation of Russia’s involvement in Syria’s war, less than two days after Russian president Vladimir Putin first said publicly that the Kremlin could carry out strikes in Syria to prop up Bashar Al Assad’s regime.
The Russian defence ministry said its planes flew about 20 missions over Homs, Hama and Latakia and hit eight ISIL targets, including a command post and an operations centre, without damaging civilian infrastructure.
Moscow’s claims to be targeting only ISIL were dismissed by the US, France, moderate rebels and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“We have not seen any strikes against ISIL,” a US defence official said. “What we have seen is strikes against the Syrian opposition.”
Russia’s military involvement in Syria “is tantamount to pouring gasoline on the fire”, the US defence secretary Ashton Carter said.
The French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said there “were indications that the Russian strikes did not target Daesh”.
Air strikes in north-western Syria, which Moscow said targeted ISIL fighters, hit a rebel group supported by western and Arab Gulf-backed opponents of Mr Al Assad.
“The northern countryside of Hama has no presence of ISIL at all and is under the control of the Free Syrian Army,” said Maj Jamil Al Saleh, who defected from the Syrian army in 2012.
He said eight fighters were wounded in Hama, where the group has a headquarters.
The Observatory, a monitor based in Britain, said at least 27 civilians had been killed in air strikes in Rastan, Talbisseh and Zaafarani in Homs province.
The strikes come amid growing diplomatic clashes over the Kremlin's intentions in Syria.
Moscow has claimed its military deployment in Syria is helping the government of the president, Mr Al Assad, to fight terrorism and extremism.
But critics fear Russia will use its military to attack more moderate rebel groups that are fighting the Syrian government.
Those fears were exacerbated in recent days after Mr Putin said one of the Kremlin’s goals in Syria was to back the Assad regime.
British prime minister David Cameron warned that action against Mr Al Assad’s opponents would be a step backwards.
Damascus said on Wednesday that Mr Al Assad had requested military assistance from Russia in a letter to Mr Putin.
“The Russian air force was dispatched to Syria after a request from the Syrian state via a letter by president Assad to president Putin that includes an invitation to send the Russian air force as part of president Putin’s initiative to fight terrorism,” the letter said.
After Russia began its air campaign in Syria, US secretary of state John Kerry told Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov that the strikes “run counter to their stated efforts of deconfliction and are not helpful to that effort”, a US official said.
He added that Moscow had told Washington to stay out of Syria’s airspace before the strikes, but that the US was continuing its own air campaign against ISIL.
“Russia said they want to fight ISIL, but in fact they are interested in keeping Assad in power,” said Anna Borshchevskaya, a fellow with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who focuses on Russia’s Middle East policy.
That means “targeting anybody who opposes Assad, and that includes any rebel essentially who is armed.”
Speaking after the Russian parliament’s authorisation, Sergei Ivanov, Mr Putin’s chief of staff, said the Kremlin would use its air force “to support the Syrian government forces in their fight against ISIL”.
Videos uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday from the town of Talbiseh, north of Homs, claimed to show the aftermath of bombing by Russian jets. Plumes of smoke and crushed buildings could be seen.
Others showed bloodied corpses and heavily wounded survivors, including children.
The Institute for the Study of War said Talbiseh was held by Al Qaeda-affiliate Jabhat Al Nusra, the militia group Ahrar Al Sham and other rebel groups.
Walid Al Moallem, Syria’s foreign minister, said his country strongly endorsed “the initiative of president Putin” and called recent French and other airstrikes in Syria that were not coordinated with his government a “blatant contravention” of international law.
“Those who really do want to fight terrorism in Syria need to cooperate their work with the government in Syria,” he told a UN Security Council meeting on counter-terrorism.
The targeting of rebel groups other than ISIL confirms that Russia’s planned assistance of the Syrian government goes beyond fighting against the extremist group.
It could also deepen the diplomatic rift between Moscow and Washington, which has backed moderate rebel groups in Syria.
The US, while hesitant about Mr Putin’s ambitions in Syria, initially said it would welcome Russia’s participation in anti-ISIL strikes when international concern began building around the Kremlin’s military buildup in Latakia province early last month.
But Washington and Moscow have found themselves at odds over Mr Al Assad, who the US says cannot be part of any transition in Syria.
“I think it’s going to further complicate things and I think that’s what the Kremlin wants,” said Ms Borschevskaya of Russia’s latest involvement in Syria.
“One way to help keep Assad in power is – you don’t necessarily have to do a whole lot, you just have to keep the conflict from being resolved – sort of create a frozen conflict, which is a Russian specialty.”
Moscow is the latest in a growing list of foreign countries including the UAE, US, France, Turkey and Israel that have carried out air strikes in Syria.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
*With additional reporting from agencies