Russian strikes in Syria likely hit US- backed rebels, not Islamic State

IRBIL, Iraq _ Russian warplanes bombed targets in Syria on Wednesday after the Russian Parliament approved a plan by President Vladimir Putin to enter the Syrian civil war to support its key ally in Damascus.tmpplchld Defense Secretary Ash Carter, briefing reporters at the Pentagon, said the strikes did not appear to have hit Islamic State targets, as Russian officials claimed.tmpplchld “It does appear that they were in areas where there probably no ISIL forces, and that’s precisely the problem with Russia’s approach,” Carter said, using the U.S. government’s preferred acronym for the Islamic State.tmpplchld Asked whether Russian bombs had struck any U.S.-trained Syrians or other ground troops fighting to topple the government of President Bashar Assad, Carter declined to elaborate.tmpplchld But Khaled Khoja, the head of the main Western-backed opposition group, the Syrian Opposition Coalition, named on his Twitter account five areas that have long had a moderate rebel presence. He said at least 36 civilians had been killed.tmpplchld “All the targets in today’s Russian air raid over northern Homs were civilians,” Khoja, who’s in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, posted on Twitter. In another tweet, Khoja wrote that the targets were in “areas which fought ISIL and defeated it a year ago.”tmpplchld White House spokesman Josh Earnest said he did not know what Russia’s targets were, noting that the Pentagon was reviewing the attacks.tmpplchld But he warned the Russians against meddling in Syria to prop up Assad.tmpplchld “The fact that Russia has to take these noteworthy steps to ramp up their support for Assad is an indication of how concerned they are about losing influence in the one client-state that they have in the Middle East,” he said.tmpplchld He reminded reporters that Putin and President Barack Obama had talked about the need for a political solution to Syria’s crisis.tmpplchld “That means, Russia will not succeed in imposing the military solution on Syria any more than the United States was successful in imposing a military solution on Iraq a decade ago,” he said. “And certainly, no more than Russia was able to impose a military solution on Afghanistan three decades ago.”tmpplchld State Department spokesman John Kirby confirmed that Russia had notified the United States through a diplomat in Baghdad about an hour before the strikes that the bombing would begin. It was uncertain how detailed the information passed to the Americans was.tmpplchld At the United Nations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, assuming Russia’s term as president of the U.N. Security Council, said that Russia had launched the strikes at Assad’s request and that they were aimed “exclusively” against the Islamic State.tmpplchld He called on the United States and other counties to cooperate in fighting the extremist group, and said that Russia was ready to establish “standing channels of coordination” with Washington, which has been leading a coalition of 60 nations in striking the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq for more than a year.tmpplchld Lavrov also said that Russia would submit a draft U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the creation of an international anti-terrorism coalition _ which Moscow wants to include Syria and Iran _ that would take “collective action” against the Islamic State.tmpplchld The proposal is almost certain to be rejected by the United States and its European allies, who view Assad as a war criminal for his use of chemical weapons and barrel bombs that have killed thousands of his own people, and contend that he should leave power.tmpplchld In Washington, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., took to the Senate floor to blame the Obama administration for the Russian action, saying it had failed to develop a strategy to deal with Syria or the Islamic State.tmpplchld “It’s not that we’ve done nothing but ... we have not done anything that would reverse the trend,” he said. “Into the wreckage of this administration’s Middle East policy has now stepped Vladimir Putin. He is taking full advantage.”tmpplchld He said a series of “hollow words, red lines crossed, leading from behind and a total lack of American leadership” had allowed Russia to prop up Assad “and play a major role in the Middle East ... in a way that Russia has not enjoyed since 1973 when Sadat threw the Russians out of Egypt.”tmpplchld The strikes came as Russia reached an agreement with the Iraqi government to conduct reconnaissance flights in Iraqi airspace to build intelligence on the Islamic State in another sign of the growing Russian effort to take a leading role in the campaign against the Islamic State.tmpplchld In recent weeks, Russia has sent tanks, armored personnel carriers and limited numbers of special forces to Syria.tmpplchld While Russia said the aid is intended to target the Islamic State, it will also serve to bolster the Assad government, whose forces have suffered setbacks in the fight against the Islamic State and against other rebel groups.tmpplchld tmpplchld In competing presentations earlier in the week at the U.N., Putin and Obama, who called for Assad to step aside four years ago, disagreed on whether Assad should have a role in fighting the Islamic State.tmpplchld In his statement Wednesday, Kirby said Russia had asked the coalition to avoid conducting missions during this first round of airstrikes by the Russian forces.tmpplchld “A Russian official in Baghdad this morning informed U.S. Embassy personnel that Russian military aircraft would begin flying anti-ISIL missions today over Syria,” Kirby said. “He further requested that U.S. aircraft avoid Syrian airspace during these missions.”tmpplchld The statement suggested that the U.S. would not honor the Russian request. “The U.S.-led coalition will continue to fly missions over Iraq and Syria as planned and in support of our international mission to degrade and destroy ISIL,” it said.tmpplchld ___tmpplchld (Prothero is a McClatchy special correspondent. He reported from Irbil. Landay reported from the United Nations. Roy Gutman in Istanbul, Turkey, Hannah Allam at the United Nations, and Lesley Clark and James Rosen in Washington contributed to this report.)tmpplchld tmpplchld ___tmpplchld (c)2015 McClatchy Washington Bureautmpplchld Visit the McClatchy Washington Bureau at www.mcclatchydc.comtmpplchld Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.tmpplchld