AFP, Damascus :Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned the success of Russia’s military intervention in his war-torn country was vital for the entire Middle East, as Moscow ramped up its bombing campaign Sunday.Russian raids against what Moscow says are Islamic State group targets took place for a fifth day despite accusations in the West that the strikes are mainly targeting moderate opponents of the regime.”The alliance between Russia, Syria, Iraq and Iran must succeed or else the whole region will be destroyed,” Assad said in an interview broadcast by Iranian state television.”The chances of success for this coalition are great and not insignificant,” he added.Russia said it had dropped concrete-buster munitions on new IS targets and destroyed command posts, storehouses and other infrastructure.”From the airbase of Hmeimim, the Russian aviation group is continuing to ramp up air strikes using high-precision missiles against the ISIS facilities in Syria,” said the defence ministry, referring to IS.Washington accuses Russia of seeking to buttress Assad and of targeting Western-backed moderate opposition and IS fighters alike.US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter arrived in Madrid Sunday on the first leg of a European tour and will meet officials from Spain, Italy and Britain as well as NATO amid Western alarm over Russia’s foray into Syria.President Barack Obama called Russia’s dramatic intervention a “recipe for disaster”, but pledged Washington would not be drawn into a proxy war.British Prime Minister David Cameron urged Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday to “change direction” in Syria and recognise that Assad must be replaced.”Tragically, what has happened is that most of the Russian air strikes… have been in parts of Syria not controlled by ISIL (IS) but by other opponents of the regime,” Cameron told the BBC.Putin’s spokesman challenged the West’s distinction between jihadist and other Islamist rebel groups.Putin, who met the leaders of France and Germany in Paris on Friday, had “asked what the difference between the moderate opposition and the immoderate opposition is”, Dmitry Peskov said on television late Saturday.Moscow is keen to turn the tables on the United States, suggesting it is Washington and its allies that often hit the wrong targets.”When the conversation has turned to this, our president remembered,” Peskov said of the Paris talks.
