Russia selects the targets for its airstrikes in cooperation with the Syrian military, Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Russian president, told the media.

“We have a list of terrorist organizations. We know them,” he said.

Peskov said it was too early to assess the results of the bombing campaign. He added the operation would continue until a deadline, which coincides with “the end of the offensive operation of the Syrian army.”

He said Russian special services are working to thwart possible terrorist attacks, which Islamic State fighters may attempt in Russia as retaliation for the airstrikes.

The spokesman also urged confirming all information coming from Syria very carefully, because there was plenty of biased, distorted or patently false information coming from the region.

Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that “anyone thinking of a solution to the Syrian crisis must think of a Syria without Assad,” during his address to the UN General Assembly, in New York on Wednesday. “Every minute he stays in power adds on the shame of those that support him,” Davutoglu added. The prime minister also admitted to “combatting”the Kurdistan’s Workers Party (PKK), as well as “Daesh.”

Moscow has always stated openly and on numerous occasions that its goal is to help the Syrian government fight ISIS as well as other terrorist groups, and no-one else, FM Lavrov reiterated. However, the Western partners’ attitude seems to be that Russia should only be allowed to strike ISIS positions, while targeting members of other terrorist groups would be“bad,” the minister added.

“There were some concerns on the part of our American partners that some of the targets of our air strikes were allegedly wrong. They expressed these concerns to us, insisting they had some kind of evidence. So we asked them to show it, because we take full responsibility for our targets,” Lavrov said.

While differences remain over the future of Assad as the leader of Syria, Russia’s foreign minister Lavrov has noted a significant adjustment in the Western partners’ stance.

“I cannot give the assessment as to why the US has changed their position. But if we take their previous statements from a couple of years ago – when they vocally declared that Assad totally lost his legitimacy and when the so-called Syrian National Coalition was accepted by our western partners as the only legitimate representative of the Syrian people – then of course it is such a long way forward compared to the statements we hear today,” said Lavrov.

“So I think we are seeing an adjustment in their stance, because the reality has shown that one cannot really push through ultimatums to remove the president of a sovereign country in a situation when you have such a crisis in the country.”

The prime minister of Iraq says that Russian strikes against ISIS targets would be “beneficial” in driving jihadists out, claiming that he “welcomes” any country willing to fight terrorism.

“Don’t forget Iraq was attacked from across the Syrian border into Iraq by Daesh, by ISIL, and that cost us a lot of human costs in terms of people killed, people being kidnapped, people being enslaved,” PM Haider al-Abadi told PBS NewsHour.

Abadi also said that he might request similar Russian air support in Iraq if necessary, under the condition that the air campaign is coordinated with the US-led coalition.

In the meantime Iraq, the capital of which hosts a coordination center for intelligence-sharing with Russia, Syria and Iran, according to Abadi, will not share any US-gathered intelligence with the other three countries in the alliance.

Sergey Lavrov has refuted rumors of Russian airstrikes hitting non-terrorist infrastructure in Syria as groundless, emphasizing that there have been no verified reports of any civilian casualties.

“Talks have already started that civilians were hurt during the strikes. We have no data of this,” Lavrov told Russian media.“We are watching very carefully that these surgical strikes are surgical, that they exclusively target the positions, infrastructure, equipment of armed terrorist groups.”

US Secretary of State John Kerry confirmed that he agreed with his Russian counterpart that it was necessary to push forward the talks between the two countries’ militaries as soon as possible.

“We agreed on the imperative of, as soon as possible – perhaps even as soon as tomorrow, but as soon as possible – having a military-to-military deconfliction discussion,” Kerry told the press.

“Secondly, we did discuss a number of different ways to try to address the conflict itself, and several options were agreed to be further discussed. I need to take those back to Washington to the President and to our team, and I’m sure Sergey will likewise discuss them with President Putin and his team, and we will follow up on that for certain,” Secretary Kerry added.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has held the third meeting in the space of only a few days with US Secretary of State John Kerry to discuss cross-country coordination to resolve the Syrian crisis.

“Today we devoted our meeting to what our presidents agreed when they met here on September 28. The first instruction to us was to make sure that the military of the United States – the coalition led by the United States on the one hand – and the military of the Russian Federation – now engaged in some operations at the request of the Syrian government – get in touch and establish channels of communication to avoid any unintended incidents,” Lavrov told the press after the meeting.

“We also discussed what the presidents told us about promoting the political process. We all want Syria democratic, united, secular; a Syria which is a home to all ethnic and confessional groups whose rights are guaranteed,” the Russian minister said.

“However, we have some differences as to the details on how to get there. But we agreed on some steps, which we and our experts will undertake very soon together, with other countries, including the United Nations, on creating the conditions for options to be applied to promote the political process,” Lavrov added. “I believe this meeting, as a follow-up to the discussions between the two presidents, is a very useful occasion to promote constructive and safe approaches to the situation in Syria and around it.”

“We agreed that the militaries should get into contact with one another very soon.”

The Kremlin has abstained from giving any details of the operation with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterating President Putin’s earlier statement that it is “temporary support to the Syrian Armed Forces.” When asked about deadlines, Peskov refused to answer the question.

Sergey Lavrov met with US Secretary of State John Kerry after both diplomats gave speeches at the United Nations Security Council.