SYRIA welcomed Moscow’s intervention in its civil war yesterday as the Russian air force launched raids against terrorist groups.

Operations began hours after Russia’s upper house of parliament approved the use of force in Syria.

President Vladimir Putin was quick to stress that Russia’s intervention would be limited to air attacks, with no question of ground troops being deployed.

“We certainly are not going to plunge head-on into this conflict,” he said.

The air strikes targeted Islamic State (Isis) positions, vehicles and storage facilities, Russian Defence Ministry spokesman General Igor Konashenkov said.

Syrian President Bashar Assad admitted yesterday that the operations were being carried out on the request of the Syrian government.

This was in stark contrast to the Nato bombing of Syria, which has proceeded without approval from Damascus or a UN security council resolution — or in Britain’s case even a parliamentary vote.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said his government would welcome Russian military action in Syria — as long as it was directed against Isis and al-Qaida affiliates.

But Syrian ambassador to Moscow Riad Haddad slammed the Nato response to Isis.

“The coalition of the US and its allies hasn’t yielded any results,” he said.

“The geographic territory of Isis is expanding. They have captured and continue capturing more cities and villages.”

On Tuesday, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said that US Defence Secretary Ash Carter had instructed his staff to contact Russian officials about establishing talks on ways to keep each other’s air operations in Syria from clashing.

Israel has taken similar precautions, with PM Benjamin Netanyahu visiting Moscow last week to agree with Mr Putin on a co-ordination mechanism to avoid any possible confrontation between Israeli and Russian forces in Syria.

Russia’s intervention followed a meeting between Mr Putin and US President Barack Obama at the UN on Monday at which they failed to reach agreement on Syria.

In addresses to the UN general assembly, Mr Obama stuck to his regime-change agenda for Syria, while Mr Putin blamed the US for the rise of Isis and destabilising the whole region.