Russia enters Syria war, supports Assad

In a second day of raids in Syria, Russian warplanes carried out a new round of airstrikes on Thursday.

Vladimir Putin's government entered the conflict on Wednesday. Russian defence officials say aircrafts carried out about 20 missions targeting Islamic State, but US officials said that so far they did not appear to be targeting IS-held territory, the BBC informed.

The strikes on Thursday appeared to target the Army of Conquest, a coalition of insurgent groups that includes the Nusra Front, the hard-line Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham, and a range of less extreme Islamist groups — all of which are opposed to the Islamic State, they New York Times informed. 

The Russian airstrikes, a major new twist in the war, come after a series of setbacks that had put Syrian President Assad in his shakiest position in years. 

“We certainly are not going to plunge head-on into this conflict... we will be supporting the Syrian army purely in its legitimate fight with terrorist groups”, Russian President Putin said.