Latest attacks to the terrorist organization carried out by the Russian armed forces have significantly damaged important objectives.
A Russian Kalibr cruise missile is launched from the Grad Sviyashsk missile cruiser in the Caspian Sea, 2013
On November 20th, the Russian military carried out a series of sorties to seven strategic IS positions in the provinces of Raqqa, Idlib and Alepo, as it was reported by Sergei Shoigu, Russian Defense Minister.
Eighteen cruise missiles were launched from both the Caspian and the Mediterranean Seas on Friday. It’s been reported that 600 terrorists died in one of the attacks. Ten warships are now deployed for the anti-ISIL operation, six of them in the Mediterranean.
Since the beginning of its offensive in Syria, Russia has pounded several strategic targets of the extremist group, like oil processing and refinery plants, weaponry depots, explosive production sites, trucks transporting oil for its sale in the black market and training camps. According to Shoigu declarations, it’s important to hit the terrorist organization on its economic base, more precisely on its financing system. Until now, it’s reported that ISIS is losing about $1.5 million per day, mainly due to the decrease of their commercial activities regarding illegal oil trade.
Also, the Russian military has started to coordinate operations with their French counterpart as ordered by President Putin.
According to the Kremlin’s spokesman, “There has been no discussion about a ground operation and there is still no discussion”. Nonetheless, Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, on a phone conversation with the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, discussed the need of starting the dialogue process between the opposition and Syrian government and enhancing joint operations to fight the terrorist group.
Written by Lisbeth Mechter
