Beirut, Sochi: Russia may accept US proposals on coordinating strikes against Daesh in Syria, a Russian defence official said, amid a bombing campaign that has escalated tensions between Moscow and Nato nations.

Russian and US experts are expected to discuss technical details on Wednesday, RIA Novosti reported, citing the ministry’s spokesman Igor Konashenkov. US officials and Syrian opposition groups have said Russia’s air strikes have mainly targeted moderate rebels seeking to topple President Bashar Al Assad.

“The Defence Ministry responded to the Pentagon’s request and promptly considered the Americans’ proposals for coordinating actions in the fight against the [Daesh] terrorist group in Syria,” Konashenkov said. “In general, these proposals may be adopted for implementation,” he said.

Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has called on Russia to avoid coming into conflict with the US-led coalition already bombing Daesh targets in Syria.

Russia’s move could be meant to appease the US, Nato and others who have criticised its Syria deployment, “but it won’t change the rules of the game,” said Sami Nader, head of the Beirut-based Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs.

“The Russians and the Americans have different objectives in Syria,” he said. “The Russians want to prop up a crumbling regime and, to do that, will have to bomb moderate Syrian groups, which is at odds with the American objective.”

Russia began its air campaign last week, its first foray outside the former Soviet Union in more than three decades, catching the US and its allies by surprise. The Kremlin said its campaign was designed to support Al Assad, who is also backed by Iran.

The US sees a constructive role for the Russians in Syria “if they actually hit [Daesh] targets,” something that to a large extent “we’ve not seen” so far, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in Washington Tuesday.

“We feel like they’ve only ratcheted up the tension and the conflict so far with their air strikes against moderate opposition forces,” Toner added.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday that Russian warplanes carried out “intense” new strikes in two Syrian provinces, with regime forces launching a simultaneous ground attack on rebels for the first time.

Russian planes hit at least four locations in central Hama province, and three locations in northwestern Idlib province, the observatory said.

The Britain-based group had no immediate tolls from the strikes overnight and in the early hours of Wednesday which were “more intense than usual”.

“For the first time the strikes were accompanied by fighting on the ground between regime forces and rebels,” said Observatory director Rami Abdul Rahman.

He said the clashes took place in Hama province and began when regime forces including pro-government militias launched an attack on rebels as Russian planes carried out air strikes.

“There was also heavy use of surface-to-surface shelling by the regime in the province,” he added.

He said the regime forces had not yet been able to advance and that the Army of Conquest alliance, the powerful grouping that includes Al Qaida affiliate Al Nusra Front and controls neighbouring Idlib province, was sending reinforcements to counter the assault.

The Observatory also reported Russian strikes in northwestern Aleppo province overnight and on Wednesday morning.

The commander of a US-trained rebel group in Syria said that Russian air strikes had destroyed the group’s main weapons depots in an expansion of Russian attacks on insurgents backed by foreign enemies of President Bashar Al Assad.

The Liwa Suqour Al Jabal, whose fighters have attended military training organised by the Central Intelligence Agency, was also hit last week by Russian raids as Moscow began its air campaign in support of Damascus.

New strikes targeted the group’s main weapons depots in western Aleppo province and completely destroyed them late on Tuesday, its commander Hassan Haj Ali said on Wednesday.

“These were considered the principal depots of the Liwa,” he said in an audio recording obtained separately.

The Observatory said the evening raids had targeted a weapons depot but that the Wednesday strikes on the Daret Ezza area killed two women and a child.

Syrian state television meanwhile reported Russian planes in coordination with Syrian aircraft had carried out strikes against Daesh group positions in Aleppo province without specifying when.

Hama, Idlib and Aleppo provinces have already been targeted by Russian warplanes in an aerial campaign that began a week ago and which Moscow says targets Daesh.

Syrian rebels and their backers accuse Russia of targeting a whole range of opposition forces, including moderate and Islamist rebels, not only Daesh fighters.

On Tuesday night, Russia’s defence ministry said it had carried out air strikes on 12 IS targets throughout the day, including around the eastern city of Deir Al Zor and in Damascus, Idlib and Latakia provinces.

- with inputs from AFP and Reuters