Kremlin: Claims of Civilian Deaths in Russian Airstrikes in Syria 'Hoax'

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that media claims of alleged civilian deaths in Russian airstrikes in Syria were a hoax.

"In the past weeks, we have noticed a huge amount of reports, media hoaxes, deliberate information dumps concerning the so-called consequences of the military air operation, which is carried out by the Russian Armed Forces. I think it's probably one of them," Peskov told journalists answering a question on alleged casualties among civilians in Russian airstrikes in Syria.

He noted that the Russian Defense Ministry had repeatedly emphasized that when selecting terrorist targets in Syria, "the priority is given to ensuring that the civilian population will not be harmed."

"In fact, our military has repeatedly pointed out that terrorists exploit that extremely careful approach and often hide in residential areas. And in this case [the Russian military] is consciously not hitting populated areas."

On September 30, Russia launched pinpoint airstrikes against terrorist targets in Syria at the request of President Bashar Assad. Since the beginning of the air campaign in Syria, the Russian Aerospace Forces have carried out over 930 strikes, killing several hundred militants and destroying dozens of terrorist command centers.

Earlier, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations said that media reports claiming that the majority of Russian anti-terror airstrikes in Syria had been off-target were "strange."