Russian strikes kill over 40 civilians in Syria

The first airstrikes by Russian jets in Syria, which Moscow said were aimed at Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or ISIL fighters, instead hit Free Syrian Army sites and killed dozens of civilians, an opposition Turkmen group said on Thursday.

Meanwhile Russia's Defense Ministry announced that Russian jets launched a new round of air strikes in western Syria overnight, stating the warplanes strictly avoided populated areas during the bombardment.

The statement said the air strikes, conducted by Sukhoi-24M and Sukhoi-25 aircrafts, hit four targets of ISIL militants including eight sorties, an ammunition depot and an ISIL command center near Hama and Idlib.

On the contrary, the US, NATO and Syrian opposition also expressed concern that Russian jets are targeting Western-backed rebels, fighting to oust Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, instead of ISIL.

Wednesday's attacks targeted some areas of Homs and Hama where ethnic Turkmens live, the Turkey-based Syrian Turkmen Assembly said in a statement.

In the village of Telbiseh near Homs alone, 40 civilians, including Turkmens, were killed, it said.

US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the Russians appeared to have targeted areas that did not include ISIL fighters.

“They attacked places where (ISIL) is not present," Carter said. “That is precisely the problem with this approach."

The bombardment marks a major escalation of the four-year conflict, where the United States and its coalition of Western allies and regional states have been flying missions for more than a year.

The Russians are “pouring gasoline on a fire," said Carter.

A Lebanon-based television channel claimed that jets carried out at least 30 strikes against an al Qaeda-linked group in Syria.

Al-Mayadeen, a pro-Damascus TV station funded by Hezbollah, said Russia's air strikes targeted areas held by an insurgent alliance known as Jeysh al-Fatah, the Army of Conqest, which includes al-Nusra Front, al Qaeda's Syrian branch but not ISIL.

But the Syrian opposition National Coalition denied the claim saying the Russian air strikes on Wednesday targeted civilians.

"All the targets in today's Russian air raids over northern Homs were civilian," National Coalition president Khaled Khoja wrote on Twitter.

Khoja said 36 civilians had been killed in areas held by neither the Syrian wing of al-Qaeda, the Nusra Front, nor ISIL.

Meanwhile, the NATO Secretary-General also expressed his concern saying that Russia's air strikes on Syria may not have targeted ISIL positions.

"I'm concerned about the reports saying that the Russian air strikes were not targeted against ISIL," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said during a visit to the United States.

"I'm especially concerned, because there has been no real effort by the Russian side to deconflict the Russian air strikes in Syria with the ongoing US-led coalition fighting ISIL," he said.