Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
made a surprise visit to Moscow.
"Russian planes in Syria over the past day carried out 46 sorties against 83 infrastructure targets of terrorist groups in the provinces of Hama, Idlib, Damascus, Aleppo and Deir Ezzor," the defense ministry said in a statement.
The one-day tally of targets hit is one of the highest since Moscow began its air campaign in Syria on September 30 to support Assad's forces.
Russia's military said that it destroyed a bomb-making factory belonging to al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli sh-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
in the area around the second city of Aleppo, where government forces have renewed a ground offensive.
Russia said it also hit a major al-Nusra field camp in the Hama region and an Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
(IS) group command post in Idlib province.
Russia insists it is targeting IS and other "terrorist" groups but the U.S. and its allies -- involved in a rival coalition bombing IS -- say Moscow is hitting other factions fighting Assad.
The uptick in strikes came as Syrian leader Assad made an unannounced visit to Moscow to meet Putin on Tuesday, his first known foreign trip since the conflict broke out in his country in 2011.