Syrian speaks out on Russian strikes

Assad says air campaign must succeed

DAMASCUS, Syria -- Syria's President Bashar Assad said in comments Sunday that the air campaign by Russia against "terrorists" in his country must succeed or the whole region will be destroyed, stressing that the fight against terrorism must precede a political process.

In the interview with Iran's Khabar TV, Assad also accused Western nations of fueling the refugee crisis and said the U.S.-led coalition to fight the Islamic State will only spark more instability in his country and the region.

These were Assad's first comments since Russia launched its air campaign against multiple armed groups in Syria on Wednesday.

While the Islamic State controls large areas of eastern Syria, the Russian attacks have largely focused on the northwestern and central provinces -- the gateways to the heartland of Assad's power in the capital and on the Mediterranean coast. Russia's only naval base outside of its territories is also located on the coast, in the Syrian city of Tartus.

On Sunday, a suicide attack in the center of Homs city, controlled by the government, killed one person and injured 18 others, state TV said. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement circulated by supporters on Twitter.

It was the first such attack by the militant group in Homs since the start of the Russian campaign, which has hit parts of the province controlled by rebel groups. But an ancient town in Homs province, which is controlled by the Islamic State, was spared.

Assad said the 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.

"It must succeed or we are facing the destruction of a whole region, and not a country or two," he said. "The chances for success are large, not small."

He said the Russian intervention is open-ended, and was planned in cooperation with the Syrian military.

Propping up Assad

But Western leaders accuse Russia of entering the fray only to aid Assad.

President Barack Obama said Saturday that Russia will get "stuck in a quagmire" if it persists in using military force to prop up Assad's government. The U.S. is intent on destroying Islamic State, and Obama said the country's larger civil war requires a political resolution that would remove Assad, "a brutal, ruthless dictator." In a joint declaration on Friday, the U.S., France, Saudi Arabia and four other nations had condemned Russia for the strikes.

Military officials from Russia and the U.S. began discussing operations inside Syria last week in an attempt to avoid an inadvertent confrontation in the country's skies. A U.S.-led coalition of 65 countries has conducted more than 7,000 airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria in the last year, according to the Defense Department.

British Prime Minister David Cameron urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to "change direction" and back U.K. and U.S. efforts by focusing attacks on Islamic State. Russia says its air campaign is aimed only at helping Assad's forces fight terrorists and that Russian planes have already hit more than 50 Islamic State positions.

And French President Francois Hollande on Sunday called on Putin to join the international coalition fighting the Islamic State.

"Putin right now is not our ally in Syria. He's Assad's ally," Hollande said during an interview on Arte television. "He can be a partner tomorrow and help find a political solution, and strike the Islamic State."

The main targets of Russia air strikes until now in Syria have not been the Islamic State, Hollande said.

"What matters is to avoid a break up of Syria and a religious war between the Shia supported by Iran, and Russia, and the Sunni supported by the Gulf countries," Hollande said. "The consequence would be a war, not just in Syria but in the whole region."

Russia is "backing the butcher Assad, which is a terrible mistake for them and for the world," Cameron told BBC Television's Andrew Marr Show on Sunday. "It's going to make the region more unstable, which will lead to further radicalization and increased terrorism."

Cameron continued: "I would say to them change direction, join us in attacking ISIL but recognize that if we want to have a secure region we need an alternative to Assad," using an alternative designation for Islamic State. Assad "can't unite the Syrian people."

The British premier also repeated his desire to extend current U.K. airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq to Syria, for which he'll need parliamentary approval. Speaking in Manchester, England, Cameron announced Sunday the addition of 20 more drones and increased funding for special forces "to combat the terrorist threat."

Cameron indicated that British jihadists operating inside Syria will face possible drone attacks as a last resort. Two Britons have already been killed by Royal Air Force drones.

He said obtaining 20 new Predator drones would more than double Britain's fleet. They can be used for both surveillance and to attack people or vehicles on the ground.

He also said Britain will take stern measures, including removing passports, to prevent extremists from traveling to Syria and then returning to Britain.

Cameron's Defense Secretary, Michael Fallon, took aim at both Islamic State militants and Russia's actions. "ISIL recognizes no borders and has to be taken on wherever it roots," Fallon said in Manchester. "So we should not leave it to French, Australian, or American aircraft to keep our own streets safe. Nor should anybody, including Russia, prop up the tyrant, rather than tackle the terror. Syria deserves to be free of both ISIL and Assad."

The U.S.-led coalition has begun preparations to open a major front in northeastern Syria, aiming to put pressure on Raqqa, the militant group's de facto capital, according to military and administration officials.

Obama last week approved two important steps to set the offensive in motion over the coming weeks, officials said. Obama ordered the Pentagon, for the first time, to directly provide ammunition and perhaps some weapons to Syrian opposition forces on the ground. He also endorsed the idea for an increased air campaign from an air base in Turkey, although important details still need to be worked out.

Together, these measures are intended to empower 3,000 to 5,000 Arab fighters who would join more than 20,000 Kurdish combatants in an offensive backed by dozens of allied warplanes to pressure Raqqa, the Islamic State's main stronghold in Syria. Plans are also moving forward to have Syrian opposition fighters seal a 60-mile part of the country's border with Turkey to cut off critical supply lines of the Islamic State.

Syria's civil war

Syria's war is entering its fifth year, with at least 250,000 people killed and half of the pre-war population on the move-- 4 million refugees and 8 million internally displaced.

Assad has accused Western countries, neighboring Turkey and some Gulf states of fueling the war by supporting the armed opposition, all of which he calls terrorists. Militant groups, including the Islamic State and al-Qaida's affiliate in Syria, the Nusra Front, are among the strongest groups operating in Syria. But there are dozens of other rebel groups, some western-backed and armed, fighting against Assad and the Islamic State.

Assad said combating terrorism is "the basis for any solution in Syria."

Russia said it is launching its campaign to target the Islamic State and other terrorists groups, but some of the targets so far have included Western-backed groups. A top official with Russia's general staff, Col.-Gen. Andrei Kartapolov, said Saturday that militants are leaving the areas they control in panic, estimating that 600 of them have left their positions and are trying to reach Europe. It was not clear how the Russians were able to determine their intended destination. He vowed that the air campaign will intensify in the coming days.

On Sunday, the fifth day of the air campaign, Russia said its warplanes had carried out 20 missions in the past day, attacking Islamic State positions in the northwestern province of Idlib. The province is controlled by a rebel coalition known as Jaish al-Fatah, which includes the Nusra Front, but not the Islamic State. The statement also said the warplanes attacked a training camp in Raqqa province, which is controlled by the Islamic State.

Information for this article was contributed by Albert Aji, Sarah El Deeb, James Heintz of The Associated Press; by Elena Mazneva, Svenja O'Donnell, Steven Buckle, Angeline Benoit and Helene Fouque of Bloomberg News; and by Eric Schmitt, Michael R. Gordon and David E. Sanger of The New York Times.

A Section on 10/05/2015

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