Obama warns Russian air strikes ‘strengthening IS’

US President Barack Obama has warned that the Russian air strike campaign in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad is “strengthening" the Islamic State militant group while driving moderate opposition underground.

"The problem here is Assad and the brutality that he's inflicted on the Syrian people, and it has to stop," Obama said at a White House press conference. "We're not going to co-operate with a Russian campaign to destroy anyone who is disgusted and fed up with Assad."

"From Russia’s perspective, they're all terrorists. And that's a recipe for disaster."

Obama warned that Russia and Iran will face dangers in their attempts to “prop up Assad”.

"A military solution alone, an attempt by Russia and Iran to prop up Assad and try to pacify the population is just going to get them stuck in a quagmire,” he said. “It won't work. They will be there for a while if they don't take a different course."

Moscow starting conducting air strikes on Wednesday, and it insists that it is only targeting IS, with strikes recorded on IS command centres, arms depots and military vehicles. 

However, other Syrian militant groups have suggested that they are bearing the brunt of Russian attacks. Russian targets so far have included the IS stronghold of Raqqa, but also Aleppo, Hama and Idlib - provinces with little IS presence.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that latest Russian strikes hit a command post near the IS de facto capital of Raqqa, killing 12 IS fighters.

IS reportedly cancelled Friday prayers and empties mosques across the Syrian city amid fear of further strikes. However, other reports claim Russian air strikes targeted a radio mast and communications tower in Aleppo belonging to the Free Syrian Arm, a group of defected Syrian soldiers which have received US training and supplies.

The air strikes are Russia's first military engagement outside the borders of the former Soviet Union since the end of the Cold War.

Alexei Pushkov, chief of Russia’s parliamentary foreign affairs committee said the campaign could last for three to four months.

He accused the US of having “only pretended" to bomb IS, and pledged that Russia's campaign would be much more effective.

In a statement, the US, the UK, Turkey, and other members of the coalition targeting IS with air strikes called on Russia to cease air strikes they said were hitting the Syrian opposition and civilians, warning that such action would “only fuel more extremism”.