MOSCOW (Dispatches) – Russian vessels deployed to the Mediterranean have fired cruise missiles at Daesh targets inside Syria, the Russian Defense Ministry says.
The missiles were fired from two Russian warships and a submarine at targets inside the western Syrian province of Hama on Friday, it said.
"As a result of the surprise mass missile strike, command points were destroyed and also large stores of weapons and ammunition of the IS (Daesh) terrorists in the area of Aqirbat in the Hama Province,” the ministry said.
It added that Russian planes then carried out aerial strikes that "destroyed the remainder of the IS fighters and their facilities.”
Russia has been conducting cruise missile strikes and aerial attacks against terrorist positions in Syria on a request from the Syrian government.
Russia has suspended communications with the U.S., which used to be carried out via a hotline set up to prevent accidental military confrontations over Syrian airspace. The U.S. is present in Syria as part of a coalition that purports to be fighting Daesh but that has not received permission from Damascus.
The suspension of the military contact came after a U.S. warplane hit a Syrian Su-22 aircraft with a missile last Sunday. The U.S. claimed that it had targeted the plane "in collective self-defense of coalition-partnered forces” in the city of Taqba in northern Syria.
Moscow says Washington had failed to inform it about the hit. A day later, the Russian Ministry threatened to treat aircraft with the coalition "as air targets” if they flew in areas west of the Euphrates River.
The Pentagon responded by saying it would "defend” itself and "our partners if threatened.”
In another development, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Syria’s opposition groups, which are being sponsored by foreign countries, are progressively losing their power.
Lavrov made the remarks in a meeting with Ahmad Jarba, leader of Syria's Tomorrow Movement, a Cairo-based opposition group, in Moscow on Thursday.
"Those representatives of external opposition, who got used to act solely on the basis of ultimatums and preconditions, who, to be honest, were rather promoting the ideas of their external sponsors than interests of the Syrian people, are gradually losing their influence," he said.
The top Russian diplomat also hailed a "rather sound processes in different groups of Syria’s opposition” aimed at resolving the Syria crisis, saying Moscow is actively seeking to step up negotiations between Syria’s warring sides.
"An important aspect is to establish intra-Syrian dialog, ensure ceasefire, create de-escalation zones as part of the Astana process and foster peaceful life," Lavrov said.
The international community believes that the "Syrians themselves should choose the fate of their country and for that they should agree with each other,” he added.