The Army General said at a meeting with military attaches that, in addition to air strikes, the Russian military supplies the Syrians with ammunition and war materiel as a contribution to the war against the ISIL and other extremist groups.
During the meeting held at the National Defense Center, Gerasimov said that Moscow thus contributes to the joint efforts of the regular army and Syrian opposing groups to defeat the terrorists.
The officer reported that a contingent over five thousand-strong, the Free Syrian Army, operates in the regions of Homs, Hama, Aleppo and Raqqa.
The Chief of Staff stressed as well that the combined airstrikes and assaults in the ground against terrorist targets pulverize oil refining plants, pumping stations and means of transportation of oil, to deprive terrorists of their sources of funding.
He confirmed that as part of these operations the Syrian loyalists regained control of the military airport of Marj al-Sultan, occupied up until that moment by terrorists of the al-Nusra Front and Jaysh al-Islam. Meanwhile, at sea, a merchant ship under Turkish flag blocked the transportation of boring machines of the Russian energy company ChernomorNefteGaz, according to the press service of the corporation.
The note circulated to the media warned that this is a violation of international rules on the prevention of maritime boarding and navigation rules.
Russian Deputy Defense Anatoli Antonov reported that the Turkish military attaché was warned yesterday harshly after the Russian destroyer 'Smetliviy' had to open warning fire with small arms to avoid being impacted by a Turkish fishing boat in the Aegean sea.
According to Antonov, Ahmet Gunes, representative of the Armed Forces of Ankara, was warned about the possible consequences of Turkey's reckless acts against the Russian military fighting international terrorism in Iraq.
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PL-12/MNA