Putin assures he attacked ISIS, Americans claim otherwise

Just a few hours after the upper house of the Russian parliament unanimously approved the president's request to deploy military forces in Syria, Putin issued an order and sent Russian aircraft into the sky.

The first air strike in Syria was carried out by the Russians against Bashar al-Assad's opponents near the city of Homs, and afterwards they launched a wave of attacks on seven different cities. Which of Assad's opponents, it is still not entirely clear. While Moscow assures that they are striking Islamic State fighters, an American intelligence officer told Reuters that the attacks did not occur in territory controlled by ISIS.

- They told us to avoid Syrian and Iraqi airspace while their attacks are ongoing. However, that is out of the question, we are continuing with the mission to destroy the Islamic State - said State Department spokesman John Kirby, as reported by Jutarnji list.

Khaled Khoja, president of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, also agrees with the Americans that ISIS is not the main target for the Russians.

- This is Russian aggression against Syria. They are not fighting jihadists, their only goal is to help Assad maintain his regime. They are killing civilians and children, and the international community must react as soon as possible.

In addition to ISIS, militants close to al-Qaeda, as well as the so-called moderate opposition supported by the West, are also fighting against Assad's regime, reports the Patria news agency.