Russia is using its only aircraft carrier to launch a major new assault on Syria

Thomson Reuters

SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - Russia launched coordinated missile strikes against rebels in Syria on Tuesday and Moscow for the first time used its only aircraft carrier in combat, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said.

Shoigu said a frigate had fired cruise missiles, jets from the Admiral Kuznetsov, Russia's sole aircraft carrier, had been involved in action, and missiles had been loosed from a mobile land-based missile system inside Syria.

Reporting to President Vladimir Putin in southern Russia, Shoigu said Russia had targeted sites associated with Islamic State and the Nusra Front, which has changed its name to Fateh al-Sham, in the Homs and Idlib provinces.

"We carried out exhaustive advance research on all targets," said Shoigu. "We are talking about warehouses with ammunition, terrorist training centers ... and factories."

Shoigu said the strikes would continue. He made no mention of Aleppo, where a civil defense official and a resident said air strikes had struck several districts in the rebel-held east of the city for the first time in weeks.

Syrian state television said Syria's air force carried out strikes on Aleppo on Tuesday. Russia says its air force is for now honoring a unilateral moratorium on hitting rebel targets inside Aleppo.

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