Updated 5:19 p.m. Moscow Time
MOSCOW, October 9 (RIA Novosti) - The US-led coalition uses illegal methods to fight the Islamic State (IS) radicals in Iraq and Syria, and its members try to attain different goals under pretext of fighting against terrorism, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Thursday.
“The coalition’s actions and methods being employed at the moment have no deep legal basis, but there is an attempt to use the pretext of fighting against a certain [armed] group to solve some other tasks, which, according to the coalition members, cannot be solved under other circumstances. This is a very dangerous development,” Lukashevich said.
The Islamic State is a Sunni jihadi group that has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, it launched an offensive in Iraq, seizing vast areas in both countries and announcing the establishment of an Islamic caliphate on the territories under its control.
In September US President Barack Obama announced his decision to form an international anti-IS coalition. More than 60 states, including the Arab league and a number of European countries have already joined the efforts. Washington extended its airstrikes against the militants into Syria, while continuing airstrikes against the group's targets in Iraq, which began in August. Obama said the United States would arm and equip Kurds, Iraqis and Syria's moderate opposition in an effort to eradicate the IS.
