Russia urges US to enlist Syria's Assad to fight Daesh

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday said the US should form a military strategy with the Syrian government to fight Daesh by combining a Syrian ground offensive with US-led air strikes.

"The coalition is carrying out airstrikes and everyone admits, including publicly, that you can't defeat Daesh from the air alone," Lavrov said in an interview with Rossiya 24 television broadcast on Friday. "There will have to be ground operations."

Iraqi government troops together with Shiite militias and Kurdish forces are trying to wrest back territory from Daesh, which is extending its grip on swaths of the country and neighboring Syria, Lavrov said.

"I am sure that the Syrian leadership is willing to act in the same way. I do not see how one can do without its help," he added.