Russian Warships Launch 18 Cruise Missiles on Terrorist Targets in Syria

Russian warships from the Caspian flotilla have launched 18 cruise missiles on terrorist targets in Syria, Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Thursday.

"On November 20, warships of the Caspian Flotilla have launched 18 cruise missiles on seven [terrorist] targets in the provinces of Raqqa, Idleb and Aleppo. All targets were destroyed," Shoigu said in a report to president Vladimir Putin.

"In the whole, during the aerial operation cruise missile were launched from the Mediterranean and Caspian Seas over a distance of up to 1,500 km, and aircraft were taking off from Russian and Syrian airfields. From the Caspian Sea, 29 aircraft of the long-range and bomber aviation were involved in the airstrikes."

According to Shoigu, ten ships are involved in Russia's military operations in Syria, six of them are in the Mediterranean Sea.

"In the past four days, Russia's strategic and tactical aviation carried out 522 combat sorties, a total of 101 air-and sea-based cruise missiles were launched, some 1,400 tones of bombs of various types were dropped."

He added that during the mission the operational range of Tu-160 strategic bombers from the Mediterranean was over 13,000 km.

"A total of 826 enemy targets were destroyed," Shoigu added.

"Each day, 143 sorties are carried out. The sea fraction includes ten ships, six of which are in the Mediterranean Sea," the minister said.

"In accordance with your instructions, the [Russian] Armed Forces are carrying out a retaliation operation to destroy the leaders of terrorist organizations and their supporters, disorganize their control and logistics systems, as well as destroy ISIL military and oil and gas infrastructure."