Russia fires cruise missiles in Syria

A Russian warship and submarine have fired cruise missiles at Islamic State group targets around Palmyra in Syria from the Mediterranean, Moscow said yesterday, the first such strikes announced in months.

The frigate Admiral Essen and submarine Krasnodar carried out four strikes against military hardware and fighters from the jihadist group who had left its de-facto capital Raqa, the Russian military said in a statement.

"All the targets were hit," the statement said, without specifying when the strikes happened.

Moscow has, however, not announced any strikes from the sea in recent months as it focuses on pushing a fragile truce between the government and rebels. Islamic State is not included in the ceasefire.

Meanwhile, Turkey on Tuesday said the US arming of a Kurdish militia force deemed a terror group by Ankara was "extremely dangerous", and urged Washington to reverse its "mistake".

The Pentagon on Tuesday said it had begun to transfer small arms and vehicles to the Kurdish elements of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-Syrian Arab alliance fighting the Islamic State group and containing Kurdish Peoples' Protection Units (YPG) fighters. The weapons include AK-47s and small-caliber machine guns, Pentagon said.

Turkey views the YPG as a "terror group" linked to Kurdish separatists waging an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984 that has killed more than 40,000 people.