The bombing campaign in Syria is forcing the terrorists to flee.
Russian warplanes have destroyed a surface-to-air missile launcher that the Islamic State terrorist group previously captured from the Syrian Army, the Russian Defense Ministry reports.
Terrorist forces appear to be abandoning their positions and are pulling back, ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told the media in his Thursday daily briefing.
“The militants are retreating, trying to establish new positioning areas and changing their supply system,” he said, adding that Russia has intensified reconnaissance sorties to monitor the situation on the ground.
The 9K33 Osa short-range air defense launcher was destroyed by a Sukhoi Su-34 bomber in Eastern Douma near Damascus, RT reported him as saying.
The Su-34 dropped a precision anti-fortification bomb KAB-500 at a concrete shelter, where the launcher was hidden, destroying both the weapon and the building,
Osa, which is called Gecko by NATO, is a highly mobile launcher equipped with six short-range surface-to-air missiles meant to provide tactical cover from enemy aircraft to ground troops.
Syrian Army Target Militants
Syrian troops, backed by Russian jets, attacked militant-held towns north of the city of Homs on Thursday, targeting a long-held and strategic enclave of opposition to President Bashar al-Assad.
Syrian state television, quoting a military source, said the army had begun a military operation in the area after heavy airstrikes and artillery barrages early on Thursday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group that monitors Syria's four-year-old civil war, said at least five civilians and six militants had been killed in Teir Malla, about 5 km north of Homs city.
A resident said at least 25 people were killed, including Rawad al Aksah, a commander of insurgent group Liwaa Al-Tawhid.
A few miles further north, there were heavy airstrikes around the town of Talbiseh and other villages in the area, the Observatory said, as well as fierce clashes on the southern edges of the town and nearby villages.
Recapturing the area north of Homs would help reassert Syria's control over the main population centers of western Syria and secure territory linking Damascus to the coastal heartland of his minority Alawite sect.
7,000 CIS Nationals in IS
The Russian military forces have achieved impressive results in Syria, Russian President Vladimir Putin told a meeting of the Council of CIS Heads of State on Friday.
"Attacking the targets previously agreed with the Syrians from the air and sea, our troops have achieved impressive results. They destroyed hundreds of operation centers and ammunition depots, hundreds of terrorists and large numbers of military equipment," TASS quoted Putin as saying.
He noted that Russia was committed to "forming the broadest coalition to counter extremists and terrorists."
"Russia has repeatedly warned of the danger of the strengthening of radical forces in this region, advocating consistently and at all levels the need to join forces of the international community to confront extremist groups. In this context, we felt it was our duty to take concrete steps in the fight against the so-called Islamic State and other radical groups in Syria," Putin said.
"According to various estimates, already between 5,000 and 7,000 descendants from Russia and other CIS countries are fighting on the side of the IS. Of course, we cannot allow that they use today's experience in Syria later in our home," Putin said at the meeting of the Council of CIS heads of state.
