Russian PM calls on global community to unite to defeat ISIS

“It is time for all nations to set aside their ambitions and conflicts and unite for the sake of the final defeat of IS and other extremist groups which, without any exaggeration, have challenged human civilization,” Dmitry Medvedev stated in an interview with Algeria’s information agency APS.

He added that the international terrorism was a truly global challenge and therefore it could be countered only by mutual and well-coordinated effort on the basis of the international law.

On Friday last week, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported that the Syrian military, with Russian air support, had liberated over 91 percent of Syria from IS forces. At the same time, the ministry warned that the terrorist group known as the Al-Nusra Front could quickly replace IS if the international community did not take urgent measures against it. 

According to latest reports by the SANA news agency, the Syrian Army and its allies have encircled IS fighters in the city of Al-Mayadeen, one of the terrorists’ last strongholds southeast of Deir ez-Zor.

RIA Novosti also reported that the Syrian Army has encircled IS in Al-Mayadeen, 45km southeast of Deir ez-Zor.

“Assault detachments of the army are conducting clearance operation on the western outskirts of Mayadeen,” the agency reported, citing a military source on the ground.

Dozens of IS militants – warlords and foreign fighters among them – were killed in a recent series of Russian airstrikes in Syria, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday. The air force also targeted command posts, heavy weaponry and ammunition depots.