Russia, Syria News: Russian Cruise Missiles Land in Iran, Pentagon Says
Days after Russia commenced its attack on ISIS targets in Syria, a number of their cruise missiles have crashed in Iran after a long-range strike on Wednesday.
According to CNN, two U.S. officials informed the news agency that at least four missiles crashed as they flew over Iran. One of the officials said there might be casualties, while the other official said this was not actually known.
The reports come at a time of increasing concern over Russia's actions in the region. Although Russia maintains they are launching airstrikes in Syria in order to attack terrorists, Washington believes that Russia is, in fact, trying to prop up the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
As previously reported, the U.S. has refused to cooperate with Russia, citing sloppiness in their plan of attack. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, who indicated that coalition forces fighting ISIS in Syria would not cooperate with Russia, said, "We believe Russia has the wrong strategy," adding, "They continue to hit targets that are not IS. ... We believe this is a fundamental mistake."
These recent reports of missiles hitting Iran seem to prove Carter’s point.
The Russian Defense Ministry has taken to Facebook to reject CNN’s reports, saying, "Unlike CNN, we don't quote anonymous sources, but we show launches of our missiles and the targets they hit in real-time."
The Russian ships that launched the missiles were positioned in the south Caspian Sea, so there was a good chance that the missiles heading toward Syria would cross over Iran and Iraq.
As reported in USA Today, Secretary Carter warned Russia today that they would soon experience consequences for their actions in Syria, saying, "In the coming days, the Russians will begin to suffer from casualties."
Images of the damage caused by the Russian missiles can be seen on Conflict News’ Twitter account.
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