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MOSCOW, October 8. /TASS/. Russian air and space forces have destroyed underground hideouts of Islamic State militants in the areas of Syrian villages of Arafit and Salma overnight to Thursday and the Sukhoi Su-25 fighters delivered strikes on the terrorists' camouflaged camp in a forest area, Russian Defense Ministry's spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Thursday.
"Underground hideouts of the terrorists exposed by the space reconnaissance near the villages of Arafit and Salma have become targets for pinpoint strikes of concrete-piercing air bombs," Konashenkov said adding that the air reconnaissance had exposed an IS camouflaged camp in a forest and the camp was later destroyed by two Su-25 jets.
Konashenkov said that statements of foreign defense officials about ineffectiveness of the Russian air strikes on IS militants in Syria lacked details and facts.
"In the meantime, we know that out critics see our materials and analyse them understanding how much damage we do to ISIL [the former name of Islamic State - the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant - eds. Tass] in that region," he said. "However, their hypocritical phrases - ‘we do not believe’ and ‘ineffective’ - are said publicly."
The defence ministry daily provides information about its steps to battle IS, "by mapping the targets and releasing the air data showing destruction of the warehouses with ammunition and the plants making weapons for suicide bombers along with explosives," he said.
"I would like to give an answer to our critics: gentlemen, you have been bombarding the ISIL in that region for over a year," the Russian defence ministry’s spokesman said. "And what is the result? The area controlled by the ISIL in Syria and Iraq have just multiplied."
Russia’s air and space forces started dealing daytime pinpoint strikes against facilities of the Islamic State terrorist group, outlawed in Russia, on September 30. The air group in Syria incorporates more than 50 planes and helicopters, including Sukhoi-24M, Sukhoi-25, and multi-functional Sukhoi-34.