Beirut: NATO has called on Russia to immediately end air strikes on the "Syrian opposition and civilians" and condemned its incursions into Turkish airspace as Russian fighter jets ended a sixth day of attacks across the war-ravaged country.
Amid reports of a mounting civilian death toll and evidence that the majority of the Russian air strikes – despite Ministry of Defence statements to the contrary – were hitting way outside areas controlled by Islamic State, Russia showed no signs of winding back its military campaign in Syria.
In a statement released following an emergency meeting in Brussels, NATO allies expressed their "deep concern" over Russia's actions, in particular "the attacks by the Russian Air Force on Hama, Homs and Idlib which led to civilian casualties and did not target Da'esh [Islamic State]".
It described Russia's military actions as reaching "a more dangerous level" by entering Turkish airspace on October 3 and 4 "despite Turkish authorities' clear, timely and repeated warnings".
It comes after the US-led coalition fighting IS in Syria on Friday demanded Russia halt strikes outside IS areas.
At the same time, Russia has signalled it is deepening its intervention, strongly hinting that its "volunteer" ground forces would soon be fighting there
The bitter stand-off between Russia and Turkey highlights the growing risk of clashes in Syrian airspace, which is crowded with not only the regime's aircraft and its Russian allies but also with fighter jets and drones from the US-led coalition against IS, of which Australia is a member.
So far Russia's air strikes have mostly been in areas the regime has recently lost or is in danger of losing in Idlib and the northern Homs countryside, says Yezid Sayigh, senior associate at the Carnegie Middle East Centre.
"They have resulted in the reassertion of an equilibrium on the ground in Syria – a military equilibrium in which the regime is assured that its position won't erode even further, as it has in the last six months or so," Dr Sayigh told Fairfax Media.
"These are areas which are of significance for ground action but it is difficult to see the regime collecting enough man power to put on an offensive, whatever the Russians do from the air."
Local activists have reported attacks on civilian houses, a bread distribution depot, opposition training camps, civilian council buildings and other targets, almost all of them non-IS-related in dozens of air strikes mostly concentrated in north-western Syria in towns.
"All day and night you can see and hear the Russian war planes in the sky," says Raed Fares, an activist and journalist in Kafr Nabl, an opposition-held town famous for its placards and videos criticising the Assad regime that was hit in the first days of the air strikes. "I think they are going to destroy this area."
"It is a new view for us to see four war planes together in formation, before the Assad regime forces would just send one plane, but now we are seeing four together," Mr Fares said.
The Russian Ministry of Defence says its pilots had flown 24 sorties on Monday, targeting nine IS facilities.
"All the attacks aimed for disorganisation and destruction of the material and technical basis of the terrorists," the ministry said in a statement, adding one of the strikes had hit multiple rocket launch systems and other military hardware.
Russian warplanes are also believed to have targeted the town of al-Bab, which is under IS control, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Experts have warned that Russia's military intervention could prompt an unprecedented mobilisation of jihadists in Syria, decades on from the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, which drew Muslims from around the world to fight there and turned Afghans into one of the largest refugee populations in the world.
Already groups of opposition fighters have publicly pledged to fight against what they are describing as a "Russian occupation".
Russia had placed itself "in direct confrontation with the rebelling Syrian people" with its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a statement signed by 100 officers of the Free Syrian Army's Homs Liberation Movement.
"The first targets of its planes were the densely populated villages inhabited by unarmed villagers fleeing from the Assad regime in Homs," the statement read.
"We have put all our strengths, means and expertise at the disposal of a unified operations room to confront the Syrian and Russian occupation" and the overthrow of Dr Assad, they wrote.
At least 250,000 people have been killed in Syria's four-year civil war, more than four million Syrians have fled their homes, mostly to neighbouring countries, while a further 7.6 million have been displaced.
Human rights groups say it is the Assad regime, rather than IS, that is responsible for the majority of deaths in Syria, in particular through its use of barrel bombs. The Syrian government denies the allegations.
