Russian aircraft bombed and destroyed 1,250 IS targets in Syria

The Russian Defense Ministry announced that its air force had destroyed more than a thousand rebel targets within a week.

Tu-22M3 bombers drop bombs on IS targets in Syria. Photo: Sputnik

Russian fighter jets have conducted more than 500 sorties and destroyed 1,250 targets of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) in Syria over the past week, Sputnik reported on November 17.

During the same period, Moscow's drones carried out more than 300 reconnaissance missions and detected 432 other IS targets, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

In addition, Russian engineering forces also discovered and destroyed about 45,000 rebel explosive devices.

Russian aircraft bombed and destroyed 1,200 IS targets in Syria

Russian aircraft attacked an IS convoy in August 2017.

The Syrian civil war began in 2011 between the Russian- and Iranian-backed Syrian government and Western- and Arab-backed rebels and extremist Islamist groups such as IS. Russia began its military campaign against IS in the Middle Eastern country in late September 2015 at the request of President Bashar al-Assad.

With the support of Russian air force, Syrian army has turned the situation on the battlefield.The Syrian government army on November 9 declared victory over IS after liberating the town of Albu Kamal near the Iraqi border, considered the last IS stronghold in Syria.

According to VNE