US official: 4 Russian missiles flopped in Iran

Moscow denies report, claiming its airstrikes targeting Syrian rebels all 'hit their target'

Four Russian cruise missiles aimed at targets in Syria crashed in Iran, a US official said on Thursday, as Syrian troops pressed a "vast offensive" against rebels in the war-torn country's west.

The missiles were said to be part of a salvo fired on Wednesday from Russian warships in the Caspian Sea as part of the nine-day-old military initiative targeting foes of the Syrian government.

Russia hit back at the claims, saying all its shots were on target. Its defense ministry posted a graphic on its website showing 26 missiles flying over Iran and Iraq before striking inside Syria. Teheran made no comment.

"Any professional knows that during these operations we always fix the target before and after impact. All our cruise missiles hit their target," ministry spokesman General Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.

Moscow launched an air war in Syria at the end of last month that it said was aimed at the Islamic State group and other terrorist organizations fighting in the country's four-year-old civil war.

Russia's Air Force hit 27 terrorist targets in central and northern Syria on Wednesday night, the defense ministry said, including eight IS strongholds in Homs province and 11 training camps in Hama and Raqa provinces.

Washington said more than 90 percent of the Russian raids have targeted groups other than IS or al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate al-Nusra Front.

Another US official said the missiles that landed in Iran were Kalibr-NK cruise missiles, which Russia had "used for the first time in a combat setting".

"They appeared to help operations by Iranian-backed Hezbollah" in Syria, where the Lebanese Shiite group has been fighting alongside Syrian forces, the official said.

'Troubling escalation'

The Russian air war has provided cover for Syrian ground troops, who have lost swaths of the north, east and south of the country to jihadists and rebel groups since the conflict erupted in 2011.

A Syrian military source said on Thursday that the Russian strikes had helped Syrian forces take back territory in an area that has been the focus of a monthslong offensive by a rebel alliance, including al-Nusra.

"They have seized most of the hilly region of Jeb al-Ahmar," which overlooks the strategic Sahl al-Ghab plain to the east and the Syrian government's western coastal stronghold of Latakia, the source said.

Tensions have been rising between Russia and Western powers over the air campaign, which has seen Russian jets violate the airspace of NATO member Turkey at least twice.

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter forecast on Thursday that Russia would soon begin to suffer casualties of its own.

"This will have consequences for Russia itself, which is rightly fearful of attacks. ... In coming days, the Russians will begin to suffer from casualties," Carter said at a NATO defense ministers' meeting in Brussels.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said there had been a "troubling escalation" in Moscow's air campaign and pledged to "assess the latest developments and their implications for the security of the alliance".

AFP - AP