Pentagon chief: Russian action in Syria is pouring petrol on fire

US Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter has said the United States is concerned over Russia’s “contradictory position” in Syria and that the Kremlin’s decision to conduct airstrikes at the request of Bashar Al-Assad is “tantamount to pouring gasoline on the fire”.

“It does appear that they were in areas where there probably were not [Daesh] forces, and that is precisely one of the problems with this whole approach,” Carter said during an afternoon press conference at the Pentagon.

Carter confirmed that US military officials will meet with their Russian counterparts during the coming days to discuss the Russian actions in Syria.

Carter also said the US has continued its own coalition-based strikes despite Russia’s warning that the US and its allies steer clear of its warplanes.

Carter stressed that efforts to dismantle and defeat the Islamic State should be pursued in parallel to a transitional political solution in Syria.

The Syrian regime earlier revealed that President Bashar Al-Assad has directly asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to intervene militarily in Syria.

The statement from the Syrian presidency came after the Russian Air Force waged violent airstrikes in the countryside surrounding Homs and Hama.

Several sources in Hama and Homs reported that dozens of civilians were killed and others wounded in the Russian raids.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country’s support for Al-Assad will be limited to air strikes and will not include ground action, and that Russia’s military intervention in Syria will be “temporarily”.

Putin said the only way to combat “international terrorism” in Syria is to “take preventive steps and liquidate insurgents and terrorists in the areas they control without waiting for them to arrive to our homes.”

Meanwhile, the Syrian National Coalition announced its opposition to the Russian raids on the armed opposition sites.

A member of the coalition’s political committee, Ahmed Ramadan, said that: “Russia is waging its aggression outside the international community, the UN Security Council and the Arab League will by responding to the illegitimate regime’s call for intervention and in contravention of the Geneva statement it had signed which calls for a political solution to the Syrian crisis.”

In his interview with Gulf Online news site, Ramadan called on “the Security Council and the Arab League to convene urgently to discuss the Russian offensive on rebels positions”, noting that the Russian raids on Tuesday have caused the death of 36 civilians.

The Russian intervention will increase the pace of terrorism, he added.