Special to WorldTribune.com

Moscow insists that its air strikes in Syria have targeted Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) and aren’t being used against rebels fighting the Bashar Assad regime.

Russia’s defense ministry said it launched a second day of air strikes in Syria on Oct. 1 which destroyed an ISIL ammunition depot and control centers in the northwest as well as targets in Homs and Hamas provinces.

The Kremlin said its warplanes on Sept. 30 began conducting “surgical strikes” on ISIL military equipment, communication hubs and fuel depots, but U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said the strikes didn’t appear to be targeting ISIL-controlled areas.

“It does appear they (air strikes) were in areas where there were probably not ISIL forces,” Carter said.

“This action is ill-advised and will backfire” because of a “logical contradiction” in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s reasoning.

The U.S. and others on the ground in Syria believe the initial strikes were aimed at rebels fighting against the Assad regime, Russia’s top Middle East ally. Two air strikes on Sept. 30 were said to have hit a rebel group trained by the CIA.

Hassan Haj Ali, of the Liwa Suqour al-Jabal group, told Reuters that about 20 missiles had hit the group’s training camp in Idlib province and that Russian jets were identified by former Syrian air force pilots who are now members of his group.

Carter said that propping up Assad while claiming to attack ISIL was “doomed to failure.”

Russian Ambassador to France Alexandre Orlov dismissed allegations that rebels were targeted and that civilians were killed in the strikes, telling France Info radio that “there has been a certain war of disinformation for some time” and that Russia was “acting transparently.

  Ashton Carter, Russia insists air strikes are aimed at ISIL targets, Vladimir Putin, War of words rages between U.S. and Russia after day one of Moscow’s air strikes, WorldTribune.com