Russia says it has bombed some 500 "terrorist" targets since launching a bombing campaign in Syria on September 30 (AFP Photo/-)
Moscow
(AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Moscow's
intervention in Syria demonstrates it can counter any threats, as the
Kremlin flexes its muscles on the world stage.
"The
operation has confirmed that Russia is ready to adequately and
effectively respond to terrorist and any other threats to our country,"
Putin said in a speech to military and intelligence commanders at the
Kremlin.
Moscow
says it has hit some 500 "terrorist" targets since launching a bombing
campaign in Syria on September 30 in support of ground offensives by the
troops of long-standing ally President Bashar al-Assad.
The
United States -- which is leading a separate bombing campaign in
coordination with other Western and Middle Eastern states -- has
meanwhile accused Russia of mainly targeting more moderate rebel groups
battling Assad.
Russia
is locked in a broader standoff with the West over the Ukraine crisis,
with ties plunging to their lowest point since the Cold War after Moscow
seized Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in March 2014.
Inside
the country, security forces -- which have battled Russia's own
Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus -- thwarted 20 terrorist acts,
killed 112 militants and detained 560 more over the past year, Putin
said.
"We need to keep acting just as energetically and effectively," Putin said.
Russia
is increasingly wary of its citizens fighting abroad and has claimed
that around 2,000 of them are among the ranks of the Islamic State
jihadist group in Syria and Iraq.
Al-Qaeda's
Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra last week called on jihadists in the Caucasus
to attack Russia in retaliation for its air strikes in Syria.
Putin
said that it was "critically important" to expose the ties between
Russian militants and international terrorist groups and their backers.
Source: Yahoo News
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