DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Insurgents fired two shells at the Russian embassy in the Syrian capital on Tuesday as hundreds of pro-government supporters gathered outside the compound to thank Moscow for its intervention in Syria.

An Associated Press reporter was outside the embassy when the first shell slammed into the compound in central Damascus and smoke billowed from inside. As people started running away, another shell hit the area. No one was harmed in the shelling.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov condemned the attack, saying "this is obviously a terrorist act intended to, probably, frighten supporters of the war against terror and to not allow them to prevail in the fight with extremism."

An official with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent said no one was hurt in the shelling. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the second shell hit about 200 meters (yards) from the embassy compound.

Rebels in the capital's suburbs have targeted the embassy in the past, and it was not clear if Tuesday's attack targeted the rally.

Insurgents have vowed to fight Russian forces after Moscow began launching airstrikes in Syria late last month. Russia has been one of Assad's strongest supporters since the start of the uprising in 2011. The civil war has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced half of Syria's population.

Before the shelling, the demonstrators had gathered outside the embassy carrying posters showing Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and waved the two countries' flags.

Some held placards that read: "Thanks Russia" and "Syria and Russia are together to fight terrorism."

"President Putin's stances were absolutely positive for Syria," said 39-year-old civil servant Nizar Maqsoud.

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FILE - In this March 4, 2012 file photo, a Syrian woman kisses a poster of Russian President Vladimi …

"All the West stood against us. Only Russia backed us . we are all here to thank Russia and President Putin," said Osama Salal, an 18-year-old student.

Russia began launching airstrikes in Syria on Sept. 30, allowing Syrian government forces to launch a multi-pronged ground assault. Moscow insists it is mainly targeting the Islamic State group and other "terrorists," but the ground-and-air offensive is being waged in areas controlled by U.S.-backed rebels as well as other insurgents, including the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front.

The Syrian ground offensive continued for a seventh day Tuesday in central and northwestern regions, killing dozens of insurgents, according to Syrian state media.

SANA said troops captured the village of Lahaya hours after capturing the village of Mansoura on the northern edge of the central Hama province.

Lebanon's pro-Syrian daily Al-Akhbar and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said civilian flights have stopped at the Basel Assad International Airport in the coastal province of Latakia because of intense activities by Russian warplanes at a nearby military base.

The airport, also known by its old name Hemeimeem, is being used by Iranian planes to bring in thousands of Iranian fighters to take part in the government offensive, said the Observatory, which relies on local activists.

Iran, another key ally of Assad, has sent military advisers to aid his forces but denies sending combat troops to Syria.

A civil aviation official in Damascus told The Associated Press that only international flights to the airport have been stopped, adding that internal flights continue as usual. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.

Earlier Tuesday, the Nusra Front released an audio message purportedly from its leader, describing the Russian military intervention as a new "Crusader campaign" aiming to save Assad's rule.

The Nusra Front leader, known as Abu Muhammed al-Golani, called on Syrian militant and rebel groups to unite and intensify shelling of villages inhabited by members of Assad's minority Alawite sect.

Al-Golani also called on Muslims in the former Soviet Union to attack Russian civilians if Russians target civilians in Syria.

"The Russian intervention came to declare a new eastern Crusader war after the western Crusader war failed in Syria," al-Golani said, in an apparent reference to airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition that began last year. Al-Golani said the Russians are not targeting the IS group, but are instead striking at militants who are fighting the government.

The jihadi leader promised to pay 3 million euros ($3.42 million) to whomever kills Assad and 2 million euros ($2.28 million) to whomever kills Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, whose men are fighting alongside Assad's forces.

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Mroue reported from Beirut.

Rockets hit Russian embassy in Syria

Insurgents fired two shells at the embassy compound in Damascus during a pro-Russian rally.
Uncertain if any casualties

Moscow (AFP) - Russia's air force hit 86 "terrorist" targets in Syria in the past 24 hours, the defence ministry said Tuesday, in the highest one-day tally since it launched its bombing campaign on September 30.

"In the last 24 hours, Su-34, Su-24M and Su-25SM planes carried out 88 sorties against 86 terrorist infrastructure targets in the provinces of Raqa, Hama, Idlib, Latakia and Aleppo," the defence ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said the strikes destroyed a command post outside the town of Anadan, located 16 kilometres (10 miles) northwest of Aleppo, which it said was used by IS fighters to coordinate their movements in the area.

Other strikes in the IS stronghold of Al-Bab, located in the Aleppo region, saw the destruction of a field command centre and an ammunition depot.

The Russian air force said it had attacked a convoy transporting fuel and ammunition in the Aleppo region.

Strikes outside the village of Latamneh in Hama province destroyed an underground ammunition bunker, the defence ministry said.

The Russian military has claimed fighters are low on ammunition, fuel and materials, and that they had begun abandoning their combat positions.

"According to radio intercepts of talks between field commanders in the provinces of Hama and Homs, the fighters are experiencing an acute shortage of ammunition for small arms and grenade launchers," the ministry said.

"Some field commanders have informed their superiors that if they don't receive ammunition in the near future, they will lead their gangs away from the combat zone."

'Kill Russians' urges Syrian Qaeda as Putin slams US

Beirut (AFP) - Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate called for jihadists to attack Russia over its air strikes in Syria, as rockets hit Moscow's Damascus embassy Tuesday where demonstrators had gathered to back the intervention.

Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed Washington for refusing to cooperate on Syria, saying "some of our partners simply have mush for brains".

"How is it possible to work together?" he asked in Moscow, adding that the United States declined to share intelligence on Syria.

Washington and its allies say Moscow is also targeting Western-backed moderate rebels and seeking to prop up President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Abu Mohamed al-Jolani, head of Syria's Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front, urged jihadists in the Caucasus to target Russians because of Moscow's air campaign.

"If the Russian army kills the people of Syria, then kill their people. And if they kill our soldiers, then kill their soldiers. An eye for an eye," Jolani said in an audio recording released late Monday.

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Russia's Defence Ministry's released images of an airstrike on an Islamic State ammunition d …

He pledged that Moscow's air war, which began on September 30, would have dire consequences.

- Putin criticises arms drop -

"The war in Syria will make the Russians forget the horrors that they found in Afghanistan," Jolani said, adding: "They will be shattered, with God's permission, on Syria's doorstep."

Russia has said its raids are targeting Al-Nusra's jihadist rival the Islamic State group and other movements, and the defence ministry said it had hit 86 "terrorist" targets in Syria since Monday.

"In the last 24 hours, Su-34, Su-24M and Su-25SM planes carried out 88 sorties against 86 terrorist infrastructure targets in the provinces of Raqa, Hama, Idlib, Latakia and Aleppo," ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told Russian news agencies.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses an investment forum in Moscow, on October 13, 2015 (AFP P …

Tuesday's developments came a day after US-led coalition forces air-dropped ammunition to the Syrian Arab Coalition (SAC) battling jihadists near the Islamic State group's northern stronghold of Raqa.

Putin took issue with the arms drop, saying the weapons could end up in the wrong hands.

The US-led air coalition fighting IS in Syria has also targeted Al-Nusra several times.

Jolani urged armed opposition groups to shelve their differences until both air campaigns had been defeated.

"Delay the disputes until the demise and smashing of the Western Crusader and Russian campaign on Syrian land," he said.

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Syrian hold up portraits of President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian counterpart Valdimir Putin nea …

He also called on armed groups to "hurl hundreds of rockets" daily at villages of Assad's Alawite minority sect.

Jolani said he would pay "three million euros ($3.4 million) for anyone who can kill Bashar al-Assad and end his story," and two million euros ($2.2 million) for Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah movement and a key Assad ally.

Tuesday's rocket attack on the Russian embassy in Damascus sparked panic among some 300 demonstrators waving Russian flags and pictures of Putin.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the rockets were fired from the eastern edges of the capital, where Islamist rebels are entrenched.

"Two rockets hit embassy territory at 10:15 am. No one was killed or wounded," Russian news agency Interfax quoted an embassy official as saying.

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Syrian forces celebrate after capturing Atshan village as part of a major ground offensive in centra …

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow it was an "act of terror".

- 'Act of terror' -

On Tuesday he was meeting the UN's Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura in Moscow for the first time since the Kremlin launched its bombing campaign.

According to the Observatory, 12 civilians including two children were killed and dozens wounded in government air strikes on Eastern Ghouta, a rebel stronghold east of Damascus.

It said seven civilians including four children were killed in a village in northern Aleppo province in what were probably Russian air strikes.

Elsewhere, fierce overnight fighting in the key village of Kafr Nabuda in the central province of Hama forced pro-regime forces to retreat and killed 25 of them.

The Observatory also said Hezbollah fighters arrived in the strategic Sahl al-Ghab plain to reinforce a regime offensive there.

Sahl al-Ghab, at the intersection of Hama, Latakia and Idlib provinces, has been a major target for Russian air strikes.

The Observatory said thousands of Iranian fighters and supplies had reached Hmeimim airport in Latakia province, where all civilian flights have ceased and which is now used for military operations.

A military source told AFP the decision was taken because of the high levels of "traffic" from military aircraft.

On the Israeli-occupied sector of the Golan Heights, the Jewish state's military said it responded to two stray rockets from Syria by targeting two regime military posts.

It warned Israel would not tolerate rockets fired across the border, "intentional or not".