Russia has bombed rebel positions in north-west Syria for a second day, a Syrian civil defence spokesman has said.
“Russian aircraft have been in the sky since this morning and bombed Jisr al-Shughour with an airstrike approximately two hours ago,” Tarek Balsheh said. “We have no reports of casualties.
“They targeted the northern neighbourhood of the town, which only houses civilians, but there are very few people there because of repeated airstrikes.”
Al Mayadeen, a Lebanese pro-Assad channel, separately reported that Russian aircraft had launched 30 fresh airstrikes in Syria against Jaysh al-Fateh, a powerful rebel coalition that includes Ahrar al-Sham and the al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra.
In a dramatic escalation of the conflict, Russia launched a series of airstrikes on Wednesday that it said were aimed at Islamic State terrorists but which mainly appeared to hit less extreme groups fighting Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Jaysh al-Fateh conquered much of north-west Syria in a major offensive this spring, including Jisr al-Shughour, ousting the Assad regime from the area and inching closer to its coastal stronghold of Lattakia.
Activists in Homs also claimed that a Russian airstrike targeted a road near Talbiseh, a village that had been hit the day before.
Syrian civil defence volunteers put the total civilian death toll from Wednesday’s strikes on Homs and Hama at 40, including eight children.
“We can’t believe an even more advanced military power has arrived in Syria to kill civilians,” said one civil defence volunteer in a statement issued by his organisation.
Syrian rebels launched attacks in northern Homs against Assad regime troops and pro-government civilian neighbourhoods using Grad rockets in what they said was retaliation action for Russian airstrikes.
Videos posted by a conservative rebel coalition in northern Homs showed rebel fighters launching rockets and artillery.
Russia earlier reiterated its claim that it only targeted Islamic State with its airstrikes on Wednesday, despite multiple reports from the ground that the bombs hit areas of north-west Syria controlled by rebel groups linked to the Turkish- and US-backed Free Syrian Army.
The US defence secretary, Ash Carter, described Wednesday’s strikes as “illogical” and “doomed to fail”, telling reporters: “It does appear that they [the Russian airstrikes] were in areas where there were not Isil forces and this is precisely one of the problems with this approach.”
But Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, rejected the charge. Speaking to journalists in New York after meeting his US counterpart, John Kerry, Lavrov said: “The rumours that the target of these airstrikes was not Isis positions are unfounded.”
The campaign was started “in response to the appeal of the Syrian leadership to help fight Isil and other terrorist groups”, Lavrov said.
Russia Today quoted Lavrov as saying: “Our targets are solely the positions of objects and equipment belonging to the armed terrorist group Isil.”
Russian military only went after “terrorist groups”, Lavrov said, adding that Moscow had asked American officials to back up their accusations of Russia not targeting Isis with firm evidence. “They expressed doubt, arguing that there is evidence, which we asked [them] to show us, because we stand by our targets,” Lavrov said.
“Talk began that civilians were hurt by airstrikes. We have no such data,” he said. “We carefully make sure that these target strikes are precise.”
Kerry suggested he was prepared to welcome Russian military action in Syria only if it was directed against Isis. Appearing alongside Lavrov after their UN meeting, he said: “It is one thing obviously to be targeting Isil. We’re concerned, obviously, that is not what is happening.”
Kerry and Lavrov agreed that Russian and US military commanders would set up “de-confliction” talks to try to ensure their air forces did not inadvertently clash while they conducted overlapping air campaigns.
Lavrov said Russian and US officials would soon “get in touch and establish channels of communications to avoid any unintended incidents”.
The US was informed of Russia’s plans to launch strikes on Syria an hour before they occurred. The State Department spokesman John Kirby said a Russian official in Baghdad had told US embassy personnel that Russian military aircraft would shortly begin flying anti-Isis missions in Syria. The official also asked that US aircraft avoid Syrian airspace during those missions.
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