Russia BLITZ ISIS In Syria With Cruise Missiles And Bombs – And Join Forces With French

[Purveyor]

Russia's defence minister said Russian warplanes have fired cruise missiles on militant positions in Syria's Idlib and Aleppo provinces.

Sergei Shoigu also told a briefing conducted for President Vladimir Putin today that bombers hit Islamic State positions in Raqqa and Der-ez-Zor.

Russia's airforce has carried out a huge 2,300 sorties in the last 48 hours, reports say.

Speaking during a security council meeting in Moscow chaired by the Russian president Vladimir Putin, defence minister Sergey Shoigu said: "We are conducting a mass airstrike campaign against Islamic State targets in Syria.

We have now doubled the number of sorties, which is allowing us to conduct operations throughout the length and breadth of the country.”

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/476131/Russia-cruise-missiles-ISIS-targets-Syria

[DFW]

1. If Putin's guys catch any of them alive and interrogate them

They'll ask to go to Guantánamo for a vacation. Asking the French for a break after last Friday is obviously a no-go.

[hifiguy]

2. I have little doubt that GIGN is already

tracking people down there and elsewhere. And they are NOT to be fucked with. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Gendarmerie_Intervention_Group

I understand they can be quite nasty indeed if need be, much in the MOSSAD style, and they are empowered to investigate any attacks on French soil OR French citizens wherever they may be in the world. Screw around with GIGN at your own risk. It likely will not end well for you if you do. So the French are right out.

And Russians have never been known for their scrupulous attention to humanitarian pleasantries during wartime.

[LittleBlue]

3. 2300 in 48 hours?

They aren't messing around

[SCVDem]

4. I have to call bullshit.

Even if they were 2300 individual aircraft, the quality of Russian air power isn't up to the task.

[backscatter712]

5. They brought out a big wave of heavy bombers.

The planes they used included the Tu-160 Blackjack, which is the largest supersonic heavy bomber in the world - their response to the B-1.

Don't know how accurate this story is, but...

http://theaviationist.com/2015/11/17/russian-mod-video-shows-tu-160-tu-95-and-tu-22-bombers-with-su-27-escort-bomb-isis-in-syria/

Early in the morning on Nov. 17, the Russian Air Force launched 25 heavy bombers against ISIS ground targets in Syria.

The aircraft, 5 x Tu-160 Blackjack, 6 x Tu-95MS Bear and 14 x Tu-22M3 Backfire bombers flew round trip missions from airbases in Russia to drop a variety of weapons: both air-launched cruise missiles, like the KH-555 whose remains were recovered in Syria, and free fall bombs, like those dropped by the Backfires, in the somehow old-fashioned carpet bombing (while being escorted by some Su-27s).

Actually, the show of force of the Russian Air Force was also an opportunity to test some new “hardware” as the new KH-101 low-observable cruise missile.