Putin: Claims civilians killed in Russian airstrikes in Syria ‘information attack’

MOSCOW,(ST)_Russia’s President has confirmed that the first media report about civilian casualties from Russian airstrikes in Syria emerged even before warplanes took off, describing the reports as ‘information attacks’.

Vladimir Putin told the Russian human rights council on Thursday that Other nations have been bombing Syrian territory for over a year, stressing that the US-led coalition invades the Syrian airspace with no UN mandate or invitation from Damascus.

“We have such an invitation and we intend to fight against terrorist organizations and them only,” Putin said.

He added that the US and Russia must establish a mechanism for sharing information about military action in Syria, which would allow the two nations to root out false reports.

“That’s why we are establishing contact between our special services and those of the US, between our military departments,” the Russian President said. “I hope it will result in the establishing of some permanent mechanism.”

Putin’s remark came after dozens of videos allegedly showing the aftermath of Russian bombings of residential areas in Syria surfaced online on Wednesday.

Russia has called on the media and foreign officials to carefully verify information coming from Syria before judging it truthful, according to RT.

“Absolutely false” reports: Syrian FM 

In this context, the Syrian Foreign and Expatriates Minister told RT Arabic channel that the claims circulated by the US that Russian airstrikes in Syria targeted moderate opposition and civilians are absolutely false.

Walid al-Mouallem said “They [the US] will lie to the end. This is absolutely false. There are certain targets established by our intelligence and the [Russian] airstrikes were carried out on the basis of this data.”

He expressed confidence that Russia’s military involvement in Syria would stimulate a political solution to the crisis in the country.

“The political process should benefit from changes in the situation on the ground. The thing is that the purpose of these [Russian] airstrikes is to destroy IS and Jabhat Al-Nusra terrorist groups as well as other Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists. Therefore, [positive] results of these military operations will lead to political results,” he explained.

The minister also pinned “high hopes” on the joint information center in Baghdad set up by Russia, Iran, Iraq and Syria to coordinate their operations against IS militants.

Basma Qaddour