Russian jets have continued to bomb rebel positions in Syria today including rural areas near the northwestern town of Jisr al-Shughour, which is held by an alliance of insurgents including al Qaeda's Nusra Front, Lebanon-based al-Mayadeen TV said.
The Russian Air Force carried out at least 30 strikes targeting the "Army of Conquest", it said in a newsflash.
The strikes "targeted the militants" a newsreader from the pro-Damascus channel said.
The strikes come as Russia rejected accusations that Moscow had bombed moderate rebel factions fighting President Bashar al-Assad instead of Islamic State fighters and had hit civilians.
"The rumours that the target of these airstrikes was not IS positions are unfounded," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists in New York after meeting his US counterpart John Kerry.
This afternoon, US Senator John McCain said the Russian warplanes conducted strikes on groups "funded and trained by our CIA".
Mr McCain told CNN "Their initial strikes were against the individuals and the groups that have been funded and trained by our CIA". He added that the move showed Moscow's real priority was "to prop up" Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Meanwhile reports in Russia say that Russia does not intend to join the US-led coalition in fighting Islamic State in its current form, citing a foreign ministry official.
Russia launched air strikes in war-torn Syria yesterday, its first overseas military engagement in nearly four decades after Russian parliament gave President Vladimir Putin permission to use force abroad.
Today the country’s defence ministry said it deployed more than 50 military aircraft to Syria.
The campaign was started "in response to the appeal of the Syrian leadership to help fight IS and other terrorist groups," Mr Lavrov said.
But France and the United States immediately expressed doubts that Moscow was targeting IS fighters.
The head of Syria's main opposition group accused Moscow of aiming to support Assad's regime and killing 36 civilians in the central province of Homs.
Mr Lavrov said the Russian military only went after "terrorist groups" and said that Moscow had requested that American officials back up their accusations with firm evidence.
"They expressed doubt, arguing that there is evidence, which we asked to show us, because we stand by our targets," Russia's top diplomat said, in the comments also released by the foreign ministry in Moscow.
"Talk began that civilians were hurt by air strikes. We have no such data," he added. "We carefully make sure that these target strikes are precise."
The defence ministry in Moscow said for its part that Russian fighter jets had carried out 20 sorties yesterday and struck "eight Islamic State targets" including a command post in the mountains.
