KUALA LUMPUR, November 4. /TASS/. Russia’s Aerospace Forces will continue the operation as long as the Syrian army carries out its offensive against terrorists, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said on Wednesday.
"The operation is limited by the timeframe of the offensive by the Syrian forces against terrorists," Antonov said at the meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) defense ministers and dialogue partners.
Antonov reminded that Russia’s strikes with the use of ships of the Caspian flotilla against the targets of gunmen of the banned terrorist groups in Russia, the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, are absolutely in line with the international law. The operation is conducted at the request of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Russia’s military use the aviation and other means only against the targets of terrorist groups in Syria, Antonov stressed. "No strikes are carried out against any other targets linked, for example, to the units of the so-called moderate opposition," he said.
Russia’s aviation has destroyed dozens of control points, a large amount of military equipment and warehouses with ammunition belonging to gunmen, he said. Hundreds of terrorists have been also killed.
The deputy defense minister stressed that international terrorism poses a serious global threat and "the main frontline of the struggle against this evil is in the Middle East today."
Russia calls for the creation of an international anti-terrorism coalition that could unite all the countries concerned based on the international law guided by the United Nations Charter.