MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Airstrikes in Syria must target not only the Islamic State (ISIL) militants but also other terrorist groups, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Monday.
French President Francois Hollande said on Friday that Russian airstrikes must target "Daesh and only Daesh [the Arabic acronym for ISIL]."
According to Fabius, Hollande’s statement did not exclude other extremist groups active in Syria, such as the Nusra Front.
"It was a concise formulation, it meant Daesh and groups considered as terrorists," Fabius told Europe 1 radio in an interview, referring to the president’s statement.
Russian Air Forces commenced precision airstrikes against ISIL targets in Syria on September 30, following a request from Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Earlier in October, Syrian Ambassador to Russia Riad Haddad confirmed that Syrian Army strikes, supported by the Russian Air Force, were carried out against armed terrorist organizations and not on political opposition factions or civilians.
