Turkey accuses Russia of hitting Syria rebels to bolster regime

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu on Oct.2 accused Russia of targeting moderate Syrian rebels in its air strikes in Syria to prop up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Speaking to Turkish reporters on his plane as he returned from the UN General Assembly in New York, Davuto?lu rejected Moscow's insistence that its campaign of air strikes launched this week was aimed at Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadists.
 
"The outcome is very worrisome," Davuto?lu was quoted as saying in Hürriyet newspaper. 
 
"The operation has been entirely against positions of the Free Syrian Army (FSA)," said Davuto?lu, referring to the main moderate armed group fighting Assad and which Turkey supports.
 
"This is clearly supporting the Syrian regime which is on the verge of collapse," he added. "I don't think it will be of benefit to destroy the moderate opposition," Davuto?lu added.
 
Russia and Turkey have been at odds over the Syrian conflict since the unrest erupted in 2011, with Ankara calling for the ousting of Assad but Moscow one of his most important supporters.
 
Davuto?lu said while Iran, Assad's other main international ally, was providing backing with military personnel on the ground, Russia was supporting the regime from the air.
 
"And until now, it was namely Russia and Iran who were speaking out against the need for outside intervention in Syria," he said.
 
Turkey was initially wary of taking tough action against ISIL jihadists who have captured swathes of Syria.    
But Ankara is now seen as a full member of the US-led coalition against the jihadists and has carried out its own air strikes on their positions inside Syria.
 
Davuto?lu complained that the...