RUSSIA HAS LOSING STRATEGY IN SYRIA: US DEFENCE CHIEF

MADRID: US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said Monday that Moscow is pursuing a “losing strategy” in Syria amid rising tensions after a Russian fighter jet violated Turkey’s air space.

Moscow last week began bombing in Syria, claiming it was hitting Islamic State jihadists. But the Pentagon says Russian jets have targeted other rebel groups in order to support the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

“Russia has escalated the civil war, putting further at risk the very political resolution and preservation of Syria’s structure of future governance it says that it wants,” Carter said in Madrid.

“It remains my hope that Vladimir Putin will see that tethering Russia to a sinking ship is a losing strategy.”

Carter’s trip is aimed at thanking allies from the US-led coalition that is carrying out daily drone and plane strikes against IS in Iraq and Syria.

In a fresh complication of the four and a half year Syrian conflict, Turkey said its F-16 jets had intercepted a Russian fighter plane that violated Turkish air space near the Syrian border at the weekend.

A senior US defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was unlikely the Russian jet crossed the border by chance.

“I don’t believe that this was an accident,” the official said, noting that Russia had violated the sovereignty of a NATO ally.

MOSCOW CLAIMS IT WAS BOMBING JIHADISTS. BUT THE PENTAGON SAYS RUSSIA TARGETED OTHER REBEL GROUPS TO SUPPORT AL-ASSAD