SOCHI, October 7. /TASS/. Russia hits 112 Islamic State targets in Syria since September 30, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.
"As of today, 112 targets were hit since September 30," Shoigu said. "The intensity of strikes is growing. Many targets were discovered in the past two days, command posts, ammunition and military hardware depots, militant training camps. All the targets were destroyed, no civilian facilities were damaged."
Shoigu said the Russian aerospace forces had "destroyed "19 command posts, 12 ammunition caches, 71 military hardware pieces and six explosive device making facilities."
He added that "23 aircraft continued hitting militant positions since morning."
Coordination with Turkey and United States
Russia will coordinate its actions in Syria with Turkey and United States because it is impossible to defeat the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization without them, Defense Minister said.
"Without each other’s support, we will not likely solve this problem," Shoigu said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Shoigu noted that the Russian Defense Ministry established contacts with the Turkish Defense Ministry. "Today, direct contacts were established at the level of the Turkish Army’s Central Command and our National Defense Control Center, to ensure our work along Turkish borders in order to prevent incidents with crossing airspace borders," he said.
Contact with the United States was also established, the minister added. "We started discussing issues of joint work on ensuring security on this territory," Shoigu said.
Russia’s air and space forces started dealing daytime pinpoint strikes against facilities of the Islamic State terrorist group, outlawed in Russia, on Wednesday, September 30. The air group in Syria incorporates more than 50 planes and helicopters, including Sukhoi-24M, Sukhoi-25, and multi-functional Sukhoi-34.