WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama warned on Friday that Russia's aggressive military campaign in Syria supporting strongman Bashar al-Assad is a "recipe for disaster," though Washington could still work with Moscow on reducing tensions.
Differences between the two have punctuated the last several days of the crisis, in which Russian jets have pounded Syrian opposition forces, but Obama stressed that "we're not going to make Syria into a proxy war between the United States and Russia."
Moscow carried out a third day of air strikes Friday in Syria, saying it targeted Islamic State militants, as Russian President Vladimir Putin faced increased international criticism over his military campaign.
The West has raised concerns that Russia is using its campaign against "terrorists" as a pretext to strike at moderate rebel groups opposed to Assad in a bid to bolster its ally.
Putin "doesn't distinguish between ISIL and a moderate opposition that wants to see Mr Assad go," Obama told reporters.
"From their perspective, they're all terrorists. And that's a recipe for disaster."
The Russian defence ministry and the Kremlin said its planes bombed IS targets six times Friday and also hit the group's militant rival, Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front.
The US-led coalition urged Russia to stop attacking Syrian opposition forces, warning that it risked escalating the four-year civil war that has already killed up to 250,000 people.
"These military actions constitute a further escalation and will only fuel more extremism and radicalization," seven countries including Turkey, the United States and Saudi Arabia said in a statement.
"We call on the Russian Federation to immediately cease its attacks on the Syrian opposition and civilians."
Russia said earlier it had hit the IS bastion of Raqa for the first time in raids Thursday, destroying a "terrorist training camp" and a command post.
The group is one of many fighting Assad and has seized control of large parts of eastern Syria and northern Iraq.
Some of the rebel groups targeted by Russian jets have been supplied with training and weapons by the United States and its allies.
Comments
Comments are closed.