Russian airstrikes in Syria have opened the door for the Islamic State to expand its foothold in the northwestern corner of the country, a U.S. military spokesman said Tuesday.
Col. Steve Warren, spokesman for the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, called the Russian strikes “reckless” and “indiscriminate.”
“We have seen ISIL make progress based on Russian airstrikes,” Warren told reporters in a video briefing from Baghdad, using the military’s acronym for the terrorist group. “We’ve seen Russian airstrikes and we’ve seen ISIL, in this one area anyways, be able to take advantage of those airstrikes.”
After previously stating that Russia’s goal was to strike Islamic State targets, President Vladimir Putin admitted Tuesday that the Russian strikes are meant to bolster the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to a CNN report.
“Our task is to stabilize the legitimate government and to create conditions for a political compromise … by military means, of course,” Putin told the state-run Russia 24 TV, according to CNN.
Putin’s comments confirm what many suspected, given the fact that Russian strikes were focused in western Syria, which does not have an Islamic State presence but does have anti-government rebels.
Warren said the Russians have conducted 80 strikes in Syria since beginning operations. Only a fraction of the strikes, focused on Homs and Hama, have struck Islamic State targets. Instead, Warren said the majority of Russian strikes have been in support of the Assad regime.
In addition to allowing the Islamic State to make progress in Syria, the Russian strikes have also forced the United Nations to stop humanitarian operations because of the danger of unpredictable bombings ordered by Moscow, Warren said.
Even as talks between leaders from the U.S. and Russia continue to work out communication for pilots’ safety, the lack of any agreement means U.S. and Russian pilots are sometimes flying in the same airspace without knowing where each other is.
In the most recent incident on Saturday, Warren said Russian and U.S. jets came within 10 to 20 miles of each other, though he noted that both aircraft behaved appropriately and neither had to change course as a result.
“But it is dangerous, it’s dangerous if two sets of aircraft come into the same piece of airspace without very clearly laid out protocols for safety,” he said.
He said there have been “several” incidents, though only one has forced the U.S. to change its course and approach a mission from another direction. Most of the run-ins have involved U.S. drones, Warren said.
“The Russians will come, and really I think they want to take a look at our UAVs,” Warren said, referring to unmanned aerial vehicles. “I think there’s been much more of that, that’s happened several times, a number of times.”
