MOSCOW -- Russia has sent anti-aircraft missiles to Syria to safeguard its jets involved in airstrikes against militants in the war-battered Arab country, the commander of the Russian air force was quoted as saying Thursday.
Russia has been carrying out airstrikes on Islamic State fighters in Syria since the end of September at the request of President Bashar Assad, Russia's long-term ally.
Russian officials have insisted that their military involvement in Syria will be limited to an air force operation.
Col. Gen. Viktor Bondarev said in an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper that the anti-aircraft missiles are there to protect Russian fighter jets from a possible attack or hijack while on missions.
"We sent there not only fighter jets, attack aircraft, bomber aircraft, helicopters but also missile systems, as various 'force majeure' circumstances may occur," Bondarev said. "There can be different emergencies, such as hijacking a jet on the territory of a neighboring country or an attack on it. We should be ready for this," he said.
Bondarev did not specify the type of missiles Russia provided.
"ISIS are a very mobile gathering of rabble," Bondarev said of the Islamic State fighters.
"They use cars, motorbikes, bicycles and donkeys to move around and change their positions after every strike. You can't effectively chase them with tanks, trucks and armored vehicles. Aviation is a different story."
Russia and Western nations have been engaged in intense diplomatic talks in the past few weeks, aiming to bring about a political settlement in Syria, which has been torn by a civil war since 2011 that has killed 250,000 people and forced millions to flee.
A Russian deputy foreign minister said earlier this week that Moscow is aiming to host a round of talks between Syrian officials and opposition leaders next week.
He said the Syrian government has agreed to participate, but it's unclear which opposition groups might attend.
U.S. intelligence sources on Wednesday alleged that Russia has doubled the number of its troops in Syria to about 4,000.
They are concentrated around the government-controlled Latakia area and Russia's base at the Mediterranean Sea port of Tartus. Russian officials have denied, however, that they plan to wage ground operations in Syria.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the reports of an increase in Russian forces in Syria.
Information for this article was contributed by staff members of The Associated Press and by Carol J. Williams of the Los Angeles Times.
A Section on 11/06/2015