MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The US-led coalition has failed to prevent the expansion of the Islamic State-controlled territories in Iraq and Syria, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday.
“The US-led coalition against the Islamic State has so far failed to curb the IS ability to expand its cross-border ‘caliphate,’” ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement.
The ministry said it was worried about the intensification of the Islamic State’s activities following the capture of the Iraqi cities of Ramadi and Idlib and the Syrian cities of Jisr al-Shughur and Palmyra.
“As far as Palmyra is concerned, we are also worried about the fate of the UNESCO world heritage objects in the city,” Lukashevich said. “We will treat their destruction as an unforgivable act of vandalism, as an attempt to trample upon the common heritage of mankind and desecrate the civilization.”
