United States Says Russia Using 'Losing Strategy' in Syria

The United States said this week that Russia is employing a "losing" strategy in recent airstrikes carried out against Syria.

The comments by U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter come after Russia carried out airstrikes in Syria last week. Although Moscow claimed that the airstrikes were targeting Islamic State strongolds, skeptics, including the U.S., argued that the airstrikes were instead targeting opponents of Russian ally Bashar as-Assad, president of Syria.

Carter said Monday that Russia's participation in the airstrikes has only worsened the already dim civil war currently taking place in Syria.

"Russia has escalated the civil war, putting further at risk the very political resolution and preservation of Syria's structure of future governance it says that it wants," Carter said during a visit to Spain this week.

"It remains my hope that Vladimir Putin will see that tethering Russia to a sinking ship is a losing strategy, and will decide to confront the threat presented by (IS) instead of continuing its unilateral airstrikes against Assad's opposition."

At a recent speech at the United Nations, President Barack Obama suggested that the only way to end Syria's civil war would be to remove the controversial al-Assad from power, calling him a "tyrant."

"We must recognize that there cannot be, after so much bloodshed, so much carnage, a return to the prewar status quo," the president said during his recent annual speech at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.