Suspected Russian jets launch new air strikes in Syria

Air strikes by suspected Russian jets hit targets around the town of Talbiseh in western Syria on Sunday, residents and a group which monitors the civil war in Syria said, a day after Russia promised to step up its air campaign.

Ambulances rushed wounded people to hospital in Talbiseh, north of the city of Homs, and one resident said at least five bodies had been recovered from the western part of the town.

"So far there are seven or six raids in the town," said Abdul Ghafar al Dweik, a former government employee and volunteer rescue worker.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors Syria's four-year-old civil war through a network of sources, said Russian planes struck on Sunday in Homs province and also in neighboring Hama.

Russia launched air strikes in Syria on Wednesday, saying they targeted fighters for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, who control large parts of eastern Syria and western Iraq. But some of the areas it has struck have little or no ISIL presence.

Several rebel groups around Talbiseh operate under the umbrella of the Free Syrian Army, and some have received military support from Western and Gulf Arab states that oppose President Bashar al-Assad.

The air strikes in Hama targeted a region in the east of the province controlled by ISIL fighters, the Observatory said.

A senior Russian military officer said on Saturday that Russian jets based in western Syria had carried out more than 60 sorties in 72 hours. "We will not only continue strikes... We will also increase their intensity," said Andrei Kartapolov from the Russian army General Staff.

Syria's Assad says the air campaign by Russia against “terrorists” in his country must succeed or the whole region will be destroyed.

Assad was speaking in an interview with Iran's Khabar TV, parts of which were aired Sunday. He said that Russian campaign has the potential to succeed because it is supported by Iran and has international, if not Western, support. He called on countries that support the armed opposition to stop, which would increase the chances of the campaign to succeed.

Assad's comments are the first since Russia launched an intensive air campaign against rebel positions in Syria, saying it is targeting ISIL and other armed groups.

Wire services