Support Grows for Russia’s Anti-ISIS Offensive in Syria: Day 5

International support for Russia’s effective anti-terrorist campaign is growing, with expressions of support now including Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Kyrgyzstan President Almazbek Atambayev, and top officials of the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) fighters who have been the most effective fighters against ISIS.

“We will fight alongside whoever fights Daesh [isis],” said Salih Muslim, co-president of the Democratic Union Party, to Al Monitor. His party’s militia, the YPG, has coordinated its fight against ISIS with the U.S., but has also been attacked by Obama’s “ally” Turkey. “We want Russia to provide us air support as well as weapons in our fight,” YPG commander Sipan Hemo said, reported McClatchy News.

Panic and desertion have hit the ISIS ranks and 600 ISIS fighters fled the group’s headquarters in Raqqah, reported Lt. Gen. Andrei Kartapolov, head of the Main Operations Directorate of the Russian General Staff, on Saturday. On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry emphasized that the bombing campaign will intensify after the successful destruction of ISIS positions.

Syrian Al Watan, a pro-government newspaper reported that Russian forces have run 60 sorties against 50 ISIS locations since Wednesday, and said that, “the Russian strikes have achieved what 3,000 U.S. strikes failed to achieve in Syria.”

Yesterday, Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov announced additional successful strikes. Statements from the Ministry emphasized the careful targeting the Russians are conducting before the strikes and the accuracy of the munitions. The guided air to surface bomb, the KAB-500, used against an ISIS air base near Maarat Al-Nuuman in Idlib, has a “possible circular deviation … that does not exceed 5 meters.” Aerospace Forces spokesman Igor Klimov described the Kh-29L air-to-surface missile being used in Syria that strikes targets with “a precision less than two meters,” approximately.

In Idlib province, Su-25 attackers hit the ISIS training camp there, also destroying a workshop for explosive belt production. Near the town of Jisr al-Shugur, they hit 8 ISIS facilities, including 4 command posts and ammunition and armament depots. The Defense Ministry updates about the targets—which have been provided daily since Friday—indicate they have precise intelligence about the locations and nature of ISIS facilities.

Plans for attacks on ISIS command posts will expand the areas covered, and the Defense Ministry tweeted, “Twenty-four hours a day UAV’s are monitoring the situation in the ISIS activity areas. All the detected targets are effectively engaged day and night in any weather conditions.”

The response of the jihadis is panic. They are again proving that there is no “moderate” opposition. Al Nusra announced the creation of a “joint military operations center” in the region around Talbiseh and “dozens” of Free Syrian Army officers signed a statement that they are joining this command “to confront the Russian and Iranian occupation.”