AP/Reuters/EPA

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The Islamist fanatics are abandoning key positions in Syria as Russian jets continue to pound the beleaguered group's arms depots, suicide bomb factories and heavy weaponry. Mr Putin's bombers blasted a further 33 ISIS targets today, including a deadly surface-to-air missile launcher the desperate terrorists could have used to down commercial airliners.

Intercepted radio messages between panicked jihadi militants revealed how the group's command structure is disintegrating, with many now refusing to fight in areas being targeted by Russian airstrikes. Russian defence ministry spokesman General Igor Konashenkov said: “The militants are retreating, trying to establish new positioning areas and changing their supply system.”

EPA Russian pilots have pounded more ISIS targets today

EPA Russia says it destroyed an anti-aircraft gun in the strikes

Earlier today Mr Putin's jets destroyed a 9K33 Osa short-range air defence missile launcher which ISIS fighters had previously captured from the Syrian army. A Sukhoi Su-34 warplane dropped a bunker busting bomb on a concrete shelter where ISIS was hiding the launcher, destroying both the weapon and the building. The anti-aircraft battery, which was installed near the Syrian city of Damascus, could have been used to target Western and Russian fighter planes as well as civilian airliners. Russian officials said that 32 other ISIS targets in the provinces Idlib, Hama, Damascus, Aleppo and Deir ez-Zor were all hit and destroyed.

The militants are retreating, trying to establish new positioning areas and changing their supply system General Igor Konashenkov

They added that the huge bombing blitz was forcing the jihadis to abandon their positions and pull back towards their de facto capital Raqqa. Earlier this week it was claimed that Russian airstrikes have destroyed so much of the terror group's arms and infrastructure that it is now on the verge of collapse. A top terror expert told Express.co.uk that the jihadis have been so weakened by bombings and mass defections that their so-called Caliphate could be completely destroyed in a matter of hours.

AFP Russian jets have got ISIS jihadis on the run

IG The jihadis are said to be retreating from positions across Syria

Dr Afzal Ashraf, from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said: "This mythical state will disappear in a matter of hours once the international community decides to act. "It won't take very long at all to drive them, if not out of all of Iraq or Syria, then certainly the majority of their territories. "They will hide in towns, but I would say do not to follow them as they would use innocent civilians as human shields. "Leave them in these isolated settlements and they will soon lose control."