A Russian war plane in an airfield inside Syria. (Xinhua Photo)

 
The Syrian army and allied militia, backed by Russian air strikes, carried out ground attacks Wednesday on what they described as Islamic State (IS) targets in Syria, while Western countries continued to accuse Russia of helping the Syrian government fight rebels in the name of anti-terror.

The Syrian troops backed by the people's militia launched on Wednesday a broad offensive operation to the north-west of the city of Hama (220 kilometers north of Damascus), according to Russia's TASS news agency.

Four Russian warships in the Caspian Sea launched 26 rockets at the IS in Syria which hit their targets, Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and President Vladimir Putin said in a joint television appearance on Wednesday.

The rockets would have passed over Iran and Iraq to reach their targets, covering a distance of almost 1,500 kilometers, the latest display of Russian military power at a time when relations with the West are at a post-Cold War low over Ukraine.

Russia has hit 112 IS targets in Syria since September 30, Shoigu said. He added that "23 aircraft continued hitting militant positions since morning," TASS reported.

However, Western countries, Arab states and Turkey, which are waging their own bombing campaign against the IS but also want Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to leave power, say Moscow is using the IS as a pretext to target Assad's other foes.

The combined assault on Wednesday hit towns close to the main north-south highway that runs through major cities in the mainly government-held west of Syria, Reuters quoted the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group, as saying.

Putin said it was too early to talk about the results of Russia's operations in Syria and ordered Shoigu to continue cooperation with the US, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq on Syria. Shoigu also said Russia was ready to agree a document with the US to coordinate actions in Syria.

However, US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Wednesday that the US will not cooperate militarily with Russia in Syria because Moscow's strategy is "tragically flawed." This is Carter's strongest comment yet on the issue, Reuters reported.

Carter said the US is willing to hold basic, technical discussions with the Russians to try to secure pilot safety.

He renewed US accusations that Russia's strikes were not focused on IS militants.

Russia's air campaign in Syria has caught Washington and its allies on the back foot and risks an incident between Russian and US warplanes, now operating in the same country for the first time since World War II.

NATO's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told CNN on Tuesday that the Russian military planes' incursion into Turkish airspace and Russian ground troops in Syria are "unacceptable" and "dangerous."

Moscow says it shares the West's aim of preventing the spread of IS militants who have seized much of Syria since the civil war grew out of anti-government protests in 2011.

Many Chinese experts have applauded Russia's move to help fight terrorism, but remain cautious over the effects of military action alone.

"Russia's airstrikes against the IS in Syria are justifiable as part of anti-terrorism efforts from the international community, as the US and its allies have launched thousands of air strikes against the IS since last year," Zhang Yao, a researcher on Russian issues at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

However, whether Russia's move will solve the problem remains to be seen, as it is impossible for air strikes alone to cut the roots and curb the expansion of terrorism, Zhang said, adding that economic and political efforts are needed to completely address the problem.

Feng Shaolei, director of the Center for Russian Studies at East China Normal University in Shanghai, told the Global Times on Wednesday that Russia's fighting against the IS in Syria deserves credit, as it was invited by the Syrian government and it did show some effect after the US-led air strikes failed to make actual progress.

Iraq said Wednesday that it may request Russian air strikes against the IS on its soil soon and wants Moscow to have a bigger role than Washington in fighting the group.