Syrian President Bashar al-Assad condemned British airstrikes against ISIS in his country as 'harmful and illegal'.
As the UK vows to round-the-clock step up missions against the terror group, President Assad said it would 'support terrorism' as he mocked David Cameron's 'classical farce' of claiming there were 70,000 of what he called "moderate fighters" in Syria ready to take on ISIS.
Assad condemned Britain's unallowed airstrikes in his country.
The row came as Uk Defence Secretary Michael Fallon urged the public to be prepared for 'setbacks' in the long campaign against ISIS, warning: 'War is a messy business.'
But Mr Assad condemned the involvement of Britain launching airstrikes in Syria.
'It will be harmful and illegal and it will support terrorism, as happened after the coalition started its operation a year or so [ago] because this is like a cancer,' he told The Sunday Times .
"'You cannot cut out part of the cancer. You have to extract it. This kind of operation is like cutting out part of the cancer. That will make it spread in the body faster.'"
He added: 'You cannot defeat them [ISIS] through airstrikes alone. You cannot defeat them without co-operation with forces on the ground.
"You cannot defeat them if you do not have buy-in from the general public and the government . . . . They are going to fail again".
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