Russia: We won't stop bombing campaign until ‘terrorists’ are destroyed

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Russia will not stop its bombing campaign in Syria until all "terrorist" groups in the country are destroyed, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.

"Russian strikes will not cease until we really defeat terrorist organizations like the (al-Nusra Front]," Lavrov declared to a news conference in the Omani capital Muscat, according to Reuters and Interfax.

"I don't see why these air strikes should be stopped," he added.

Lavrov went on to address the Syrian opposition’s demand that Russia relent its bombing campaign as a "precondition" for talks, arguing that it was quite "shortsighted" of them to expect that preconditions "set in the forms of ultimatums, can resolve problems."

In its efforts to bolster its ally in Damascus, the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, Russian air power has been bombing various armed groups across the country opposed to Assad, many of them Islamist groups, including ISIS and Nusra.