Dubai: Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Thursday the four Russian cruise missiles fired at Syria from the Caspian Sea had reached their targets, Interfax news agency reported.
US officials and media said the missiles had crashed in Iran.
“In contrast to CNN we do not talk with reference to anonymous sources,” Interfax quoted Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov as saying. “We show the launch of our rockets and the targets they struck.”
US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter on Friday reiterated the claim, saying the US has indications that four Russian cruise missiles crashed in Iran rather than Syria, suggesting there were malfunctions. It was the first public comment by a US official on the cruise missile failures.
Carter was speaking at a press conference in London with British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon. The British are part of the coalition striking Daesh fighters in Iraq, but not doing strikes in Syria.
As many as four of the 26 long-range cruise missiles that Russia said it fired at Syrian targets landed instead in Iran. Iran on Friday declined to confirm the claim. “We don’t confirm” this information, foreign ministry spokeswoman Afkham Marzieh said when asked about the claim.
The US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, had said the missiles crashed in Iran on Wednesday, but did not provide details about where they might have come down or whether they caused any damage.
Russia’s defence ministry has flatly denied the claim.
“Any professional knows that during these operations we always fix the target before and after impact. All our cruise missiles hit their target,” said ministry spokesman General Igor Konashenkov.
Russia posted a graphic on the defence ministry website Wednesday showing 26 missiles overflying Iran and Iraq before striking inside Syria, where it has been conducting air strikes in defence of President Bashar Al Assad since September 30.
The missile launches were in support of a major ground offensive by the Syrian army on several fronts in the war-torn country’s west.