MOSCOW. Dec 5 (Interfax) - The United States military is indulging in wishful thinking when it claims that most of the territory of Iraq and Syria has been freed from terrorists by the U.S.-led coalition, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
"Over the last month, the international coalition's daily combat operation against the terrorists of ISIL [banned in Russia] in the east of Syria did not exceed three to five strikes on isolated targets far from militant strongholds," the ministry said in a statement.
"Over the same period, for the local tribal groups advancing on the eastern bank of the Euphrates alone, the Russian Aerospace Forces carried out 672 combat sorties and hit over 1,450 targets," the ministry said.
"The total number of coalition strikes in Syria over the month does not exceed the daily norm of Russian airstrikes on ISIL," the ministry said.