Russia helping 'butcher' Bashar al-Assad says Cameron

Prime Minister David Cameron on Saturday, 3 October, said Russia was helping "the butcher Bashar al-Assad by carrying out airstrikes in Syria". The British prime minister said that the Russian military intervention was "really making the situation worse in Syria".

"It's absolutely clear that Russia is not discriminating between ISIL and the legitimate Syrian opposition groups and, as a result, they are actually backing the butcher Assad and helping him and really making the situation worse," Cameron was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse.

He added: "Rightly, they [Russia] have been condemned across the Arab world for what they have done and I think the Arab world is right about that. But we should be using this moment now to try to force forward a comprehensive plan to bring political transition in Syria because that is the answer for bringing peace to the region."

Earlier British intelligence forces had said that only one in 20 Russian airstrikes were hitting IS targets. "The unguided Russian airstrikes in Syria have killed civilians," Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said.

Russia said its airstrikes targeted IS command centres and arms depots, but the British intelligence agency says only 5% of the airstrikes targeted the IS, "while most of its airstrikes killed civilians and Free Syrian forces who are fighting Assad", Fallon told the Sun. He added that Britain should extend its own bombing campaign against IS in Iraq and Syria. "We're analysing where the strikes are going every morning. The vast majority are not against IS at all," he said.