The United States blasted Russia's military strikes in Syria Thursday, saying they were strengthening ISIS militants, killing dozens of civilians, forcing tens of thousands more from their homes, and destroying schools and markets. During a United Nations Security Council meeting on the Middle East, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power referred to a Reuters analysis of Russian Defense Ministry data that found almost 80 percent of Russia's declared targets in Syria have been in areas not held by ISIS. "By attacking non-extremist groups Russia has boosted, perversely, the relative strength of [ISIS], which has taken advantage of this campaign by seizing new territory in rural Aleppo," Power said. "Since Russia began its strikes the Syrian map has shifted in [ISIS] favor," she said. The U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq and Syria Wednesday carried out a large-scale attack on Syria's Omar oil field as part of its mission to target ISIS militants' ability to generate money, a coalition spokesman said Thursday. Operations officer Maj. Michael Filanowski told journalists in Baghdad that airstrikes struck ISIS-controlled oil refineries, command and control centers and transportation nodes in the Omar oil field near the town of Deir al-Zor. Coalition spokesman Col. Steven Warren said the attack hit 26 targets, making it one of the largest set of strikes since launching the air campaign last year. The refinery generates between $1.7 million and $5.1 million per month for ISIS. "It was very specific targets that would result in long-term incapacitation of their ability to sell oil, to get it out of the ground and transport it," Filanowski said. ISIS seized a number of oil refineries and other infrastructure in Iraq and Syria as it sought to generate revenue to build a self-sufficient state. The All4Syria news website Thursday reported intense fighting in the south of Aleppo province, accompanied with heavy aerial bombardments by government forces. The news website also reported that the Sham Front regained control of Al-Ayoubiya village in that same area, hours after President Bashar Assad's forces claimed control over it. The Syrian army, backed by fighters from Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah, has launched ground offensives against insurgent-held areas of western and northwestern Syria since Russia began airstrikes in the country three weeks ago. Power said that, according to the United Nations, these offensives had forced some 85,000 people to flee their homes. Citing Syrian monitoring groups, she said Russian strikes had killed at least 100 civilians and destroyed civilian infrastructure including schools and markets. Meanwhile, Moscow denied reports of a Russian strike on a clinic in Syria as "fake," attacking the the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights behind the reports as no more reliable than a "pizzeria." "I want to deny all of this information," said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday that 13 people including medical staff were killed in Russian airstrikes Tuesday against a field hospital in the northwestern province of Idlib that was run by the Syrian-American Medical Society. Russian Defense Ministry official, Igor Konashenkov, Thursday denied U.S. allegations that the Russian military had used cluster bombs in populated areas in Syria. Russia has said it is targeting ISIS along with other groups it classifies as Islamist terrorists. It has said Moscow and the West are fighting a common enemy. "Chaos and anarchy, to a large extent resulting from foreign interference in regional affairs, is being actively exploited by terrorist organizations, first and foremost the so-called Islamic State," Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told the Security Council. "Collective approaches are needed to liquidate the terrorist threat." A U.S.-led coalition began bombing ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq a year ago. Power said the nearly five-year conflict would only end with the departure of Syrian President Bashar Assad. "Supporting him now only ensures that by the time a political transition is negotiated [ISIS] will only be stronger, its recruitment having been bolstered by the actions of Russia, Iran and the regime, and the Syrian state will only be weaker," she said. Also Thursday, the International Committee for the Red Cross said airstrikes in Syria are making it harder to deliver desperately needed aid to civilians suffering from the country's brutal war. The ICRC had been planning to evacuate wounded from areas in west and northwest Syria as part of a recent cease-fire agreement, "but now it's harder because of air bombardment," head of the ICRC's Middle East and North Africa operations, Robert Mardini said.
