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Russia signaled commitment to its air campaign in Syria, saying it’s ready to support President Bashar al-Assad as long as government forces are engaged with the regime’s enemies.

Russia carried out four air strikes on Islamic State targets overnight, the Defense Ministry said on Twitter on Thursday. At the same time, Syria’s envoy to Moscow, Riad Haddad, said the air campaign is also targeting the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front and Ahrar ash-Sham. With the latter group supported by Qatar and Turkey, according to Hassan Hassan, an associate fellow at Chatham House, that will add to doubts among the U.S. and its allies who were caught by surprise when the bombing campaign kicked off on Wednesday. They say Russia may be targeting other groups in a bid to prop up Assad.

“This operation is aimed at supporting the Syrian armed forces in their fight against Islamic State and other terrorist groups,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call on Thursday. It will go on “for the duration of the offensive of the Syrian armed forces” and its main goal is to support Assad’s government, he said.

The attacks raise the risk of accidents between Russian and U.S. jets, which are sharing airspace as they pursue separate bombing campaigns. While Russia insists that it has destroyed Islamic State targets, U.S. and French officials said the air strikes weren’t in areas controlled by the group. The main opposition movement, the Syrian National Coalition, condemned Russian “military aggression” on Wednesday and said the attacks had targeted civilians who rejected the extremist group trying to establish a caliphate state in Syria and Iraq, which is also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Russia sees “eye to eye” with the U.S.-led coalition on its targets and the first contacts between their militaries regarding Syria may take place very soon, though air strikes alone won’t solve the Islamic State problem, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in New York on Thursday.

“We fight terrorism,” Lavrov said. “As far as I understand, the coalition announced ISIL and other associated groups as the enemy and the coalition does the same as Russia.”

Wednesday was the first time that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government, which is coordinating its actions with the Syrian army, mentioned supporting an offensive by Assad’s troops, although it has repeatedly referred to other rebel groups as “terrorists.” On Monday, Putin appealed for a coordinated effort to oppose Islamic State “and other terrorist groups” at the United Nations in New York. He also called for the international community to stabilize the political situation in Syria.

Russian ‘Crime’

Islamic State isn’t present “among all the targets that Russia has chosen until now,” Hadi al-Bahra, a member of the Syrian National Coalition’s politburo, said by phone from Istanbul on Thursday. “It’s very clear it’s interfering to shore up the regime and not to fight ISIS. This is a crime against the Syrian people. Russia is taking part in consolidating the rule of a dictator who is killing his people.”

The ruble fell for the first time in three days amid concerns the air strikes may exacerbate tensions with the U.S. that have brought relations to their worst level since the Cold War following Russia’s annexation of Crimea last year. The currency weakened 0.5 percent against the dollar at 65.6802 at 9:00 p.m. in Moscow, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It has lost 40 percent against the greenback over the past 12 months, the world’s third-worst performing currency.

“We are fighting armed terrorist groups, their names haven’t changed,” said Haddad, Syria’s ambassador to Russia. “All of them are engaged in terrorism. The Syrian army, with direct support from the Russian planes, with full air support, is targeting these armed terrorist groups.”

‘Targeted Opposition’

Turkey is “seriously concerned regarding information that Russia targeted opposition positions,” instead of Islamic State, interim Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu said on Thursday, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency. Such a development would make the crisis worse, which is “the last thing we need” in Syria, he said.

Russia’s entry into the conflict may aid Assad’s forces, which have made “significant progress” with Iranian reinforcements establishing a corridor running through the central Syrian regions of Homs and Hama and up to the coast from Damascus, according to Reva Bhalla, vice president for analysis at Stratfor, a geopolitical intelligence and advisory firm based in Austin, Texas.

“With significant Russian support,” the government may be able to secure the territory for a future state for Assad’s Alawite minority with the goal of entering into potential negotiations to end the conflict, she said.

At the same time, the air campaign may hurt the prospects for such talks, Matthew Henman, head of IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre, said in a report. At least two of the attacks hit areas near the city of Homs, where Islamic State is trying to push into government-controlled areas, and the rest targeted “a pocket of anti-government militant control” north of Homs and “key front-line positions,” he said.

“Such strikes have the potential to further alienate the remaining so-called moderate or nationalist elements of the Syrian anti-government forces, potentially driving them toward more hardline, Islamist militant groups,” Henman said. A Russian intervention may also prompt other Assad allies to back extremist groups, “further intensifying the conflict and placing a negotiated political settlement further from reach.”

— With assistance by Taylan Bilgic

(Updates with Lavrov comment in fifth, sixth paragraphs, Turkey in 11th.)