【モスクワ＝常盤伸】ロシアのシリア空爆で、ロシア国防省報道官は一日、前日深夜から一日未明にかけ、北西部イドリブなどで計八回の攻撃を行ったと発表した。タス通信などによると、ロシア空軍のスホイ２４Ｍと２５など五十機以上の戦闘機や爆撃機が過激派組織「イスラム国」（ＩＳ）の弾薬倉庫や戦闘司令拠点を破壊。中部ハマやホムスでは前日午後に続く第二波の空爆となり、司令部や弾薬製造工場を完全に破壊したという。
　イドリブは反体制派武装勢力が今春以降に制圧した要衝。ＩＳの施設はないとみられる。ロシア軍がハマやホムスでＩＳ拠点を壊滅したと発表する三十日の空爆では、反体制派「自由シリア軍」の拠点地域が攻撃され、民間人が多数犠牲になった可能性が高い。
　ロシアの空爆の真の狙いは、ＩＳ攻撃を隠れみのにしたシリア反体制勢力の壊滅とアサド体制延命にあることが明白になってきた。ＩＳ掃討作戦でロシアの肯定的な関与を期待したオバマ米政権の思惑は外れ、シリア情勢はますます混迷の様相を呈している。
　ペスコフ報道官は一日、記者団に空爆の標的を問われ、「過激組織の名簿がある。シリア国防省と調整して標的を決める」と明言。プーチン政権は、アサド政権と内戦を展開する自由シリア軍などの反体制派諸勢力もテロ組織と規定している。一日付ベドモスチ（電子版）はロシア国防省に近い筋の情報として、シリアでの作戦にはロシア軍将兵約千五百人が参加する可能性があると伝えた。
http://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/world/news/CK2015100202000129.html

空爆標的は「テロ組織」　ロシア外相が記者会見　

　ロシアのラブロフ外相は１日、国連本部で記者会見し、ロシアがシリアで実施する空爆は「イスラム国」や国際テロ組織アルカイダ系「ヌスラ戦線」などの過激派組織掃討を目指すもので、反体制派「自由シリア軍」を狙ったものではないと言明した。

　自由シリア軍の一部は米国の軍事訓練を受けているが、ロシアはアサド政権打倒を図る反政府勢力でも「テロ組織」であるかどうかで、対応に一線を画す姿勢を示した。ラブロフ氏は前日のケリー米国務長官との会談でシリアの政治プロセスを進めるための「具体的な手順」を協議したとしており、危機打開に向けた対話枠組みから自由シリア軍を排除しないことを示唆したものといえそうだ。

　一方、ロシアがシリアで実施した空爆は「過激派組織『イスラム国』の拠点を標的としたもの」として同組織の支配地域外での空爆を否定。現時点でイラク空爆は予定してないとも述べた。（共同）
http://www.sankei.com/world/news/151002/wor1510020019-n1.html

　
Putin wants to preserve Syria – this is not about Russia-US relations
Mary Dejevsky
Mary Dejevsky
The risk of accidental clash is real, but Russia’s first airstrikes signal the desire to be treated as a global player and to protect the Syrian state
A guard opens the door for Vladimir Putin as he attends a meeting of the presidential council for civil society and human rights in Moscow
‘If one interpretation of Russia’s action is a concern to maintain national dignity and not be seen to take orders from Washington, another could well be Putin’s desire for post-Soviet Russia to be treated as a state with global interests.’ Photograph: Reuters
Thursday 1 October 2015 15.39 BST Last modified on Thursday 1 October 2015 18.46 BST
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When the US and USSR were engaged in their proxy conflicts during the cold war – in Central America, in Africa, even in Afghanistan – there was always an ideological element and the forces of the two countries never confronted each other directly on the battlefield. The risk of a superpower conflagration was kept at one remove.

A chilling handshake between Obama and Putin, while Syria disintegrates
Jonathan Jones
Jonathan Jones Read more
It is tempting to see the first Russian airstrikes in Syria and Russia’s recently increased military presence in and around Latakia as an old-style proxy conflict, shorn of its ideological aspect and replayed as raw geopolitics. On the one side are the US and its allies, including the UK, who have the ultimate objective of removing Bashar al-Assad, to which they have added a mission to turn back Islamic State. On the other side is Russia, determined not to lose its last remaining foothold in the Middle East to the west, and using the fight against Isis as a cover to keep its ally, Assad, in power.

Such an interpretation may be too simplistic and misread Russia’s motives. But it does not make the current situation, in the short-term at least, any less fraught with risk. On the contrary. Yesterday’s airstrikes by Russia, of which Washington received an hour’s notice via a Russian general in Baghdad, held out the very real possibility of an air clash by accident not design. No wonder the US swiftly agreed to top-level military talks with Russia about coordinating action in Syria.

Nor can it be excluded that this was one reason why president Vladimir Putin gave the order for the first airstrikes within 24 hours of the Russian parliament giving the political go-ahead. Russia wanted to show that it was an equal player with the US in the region, and that it was not going to fit into whatever Washington decreed. It wants a say.

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Russian airstrikes hit Syria hours after Putin declares military involvement
If one interpretation of Russia’s action is a concern to maintain national dignity and not be seen to take orders from Washington, another could well be Putin’s desire for post-Soviet Russia to be treated as a state with global interests, not confined to a “mere” regional role in and around Ukraine. Russia’s involvement in Syria is, to be sure, a convenient distraction for the Russian public at a time when Moscow may be looking to disengage from Ukraine. But it is not just that.

Russia’s build-up in Syria has caused much bafflement abroad, with the favoured explanation being the hoary old one of “superpower” rivalry and the alliance with Assad. But statements by Russian military figures and by Putin himself, including in his speech to the UN general assembly earlier this week, suggest a slightly different rationale – and it is worth listening to what they actually say.

Putin indeed wants Russia to be seen as a global player, but as a player with interests that are not inimical, but which overlap to a degree with those of the US and others. He sees Syria as an opportunity to be part of a collaborative effort, and Isis as the same sort of cultural and terrorist threat to Russia as it is perceived by the west.

Analysis Russia's intervention in Syria brings Obama's dilemma to the fore
After a tentative and diffuse approach to the country’s civil war, the US grapples with whether to cut its losses as questions over the possibility of cooperation and a post-Assad future grow increasingly complex
Read more
If anything, Putin sees the potential threat to Russia from Isis as bigger and more urgent, because of the number of Russians (many of them Chechens) thought to be fighting with Isis and the threat of jihadism in and around Chechnya. Russia’s desire to combat Isis need not be seen as a pretext for protecting Assad; the converse may rather be true. In Russia’s view, as Putin set out at the UN, the Assad government is all that stands in the way of complete victory for Isis and the de facto disappearance of the Syrian state.

For Putin, the priority is the preservation of the Syrian state. He looks at Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, and sees western interventions that have resulted in anarchy. He foresees the same for Syria if the west sees toppling Assad, rather than combating Isis, as the priority.

It was possible, after what both Barack Obama and Putin said at the UN, to divine some shifting towards a sliver of common ground. Obama said Russia (and Iran) could be involved and hinted at some flexibility about the timing of Assad’s departure. Putin allowed that Assad might eventually go. Those verbal nuances have been lost in the sudden outbreak of competitive air strikes.

It is just possible that the US-Russia military talks, now agreed, and the small hints of convergence over Assad could produce a cooperative approach. The alternative – the risk of a US-Russia military clash over Syria by accident – cannot be what either Moscow or Washington wants.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/01/putin-syria-russia-us-airstrikes

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Reports of alleged casualties among civilians caused by Russian airstrikes in Syria emerged even before Russian warplanes were launched for their first combat mission, President Vladimir Putin said, branding such reports 'information attacks.'
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“Other nations have been bombing Syrian territory for over a year,” Putin told the Russian human rights council on Thursday, 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 added.

The Russian leader also commented on the alleged civilian casualties caused by Russian warplanes in Syria.

“As for media reports claiming that the civilian population is suffering, we are prepared for such information attacks. The first reports about civilian casualties emerged even before our planes got in the air,” he said.

Dozens of videos allegedly showing the aftermath of Russian bombings of residential areas in Syria surfaced online on Wednesday, after Moscow announced a bombing campaign designed to help Syrian government forces fight the Islamic State terrorist group.

Russia believes them to be information warfare, and has called on the media and foreign officials to carefully verify information coming from Syria before judging it truthful.

Putin 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,” he said. “I hope it will result in the establishing of some permanent mechanism.”

On Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported hitting 12 targets belonging to the IS terrorist group since starting military action in Syria.

The tasks set for the Russian Air Force in Syria over the last 24 hours have been “fully completed,” said Igor Klimov, a Russian Air Force spokesman.

“Recorders’ data showed that Russian airstrikes hit only the targets belonging to IS terrorist group infrastructure," Klimov said as cited by TASS.

The country's forces neither planned nor carried out any attacks against civilian infrastructure, he added.

The Russian effort is designed to provide air support to the Syria army, which is struggling to contain the spread of jihadist militants in the war-torn country.

Syrian military provides intelligence on prospective targets for Russian forces in Syria, which is double-checked before clearance is given to deliver a strike, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
http://www.rt.com/news/317188-putin-civilian-casualties-syria/