MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Russian Defense Ministry doubts London's "major contribution" to the campaign against Daesh terrorist group, which has been recently stated by UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon, the Russian ministry's spokesman said on Friday.
On Thursday, Fallon said that London had significantly contributed to combating Daesh since 2014, "forcing this miserable cult from the gates of Baghdad to the brink of defeat in Raqqa." The defense secretary also noted the UK forces' role in striking the terrorists' targets and training their allies' personnel.
"As the defeat of the Daesh in Syria by the Syrian forces assisted by the Russian Aerospace Forces is getting closer, it turned out suddenly that for all these years somewhere behind our back UK Defense Minister Michael Fallon has been most of all helping to destroy terrorists. According to Fallon, the United Kingdom has made a major contribution to the campaign to disrupt the capabilities of the 'miserable cult' of Daesh since 2014… This raises the question: where were all these 'forces of good' in mid-2015 when IS captured a third of Iraq and the wholeof Syria," Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.
Syria has been in a state of civil war for over six years, with government forces fighting against both opposition groups who strive to overthrow the government, and numerous extremist and terrorist groups such as Daesh. Since an official request from Syrian President Bashar Assad in 2015, the Russian Aerospace Forces have been supporting the Syrian government forces in their fight to rid the country of the terrorists.
