The following sounds like media hype to me: merciless blanket air campaign, object of wiping the Islamic State’s Syrian center of Raqqa off the map, systematically razing the town of 200,000 inhabitants 160km east of Aleppo, When the Russians are done, the town will be a pile of rubble, an intelligence source told DEBKAfile.
I live in a city of 200,000 and seventy five sorties would hardly make a dent in our population, especially sense the Russians would attack commercial and industrial buildings instead of residential sections. Also cruise missiles are really expensive and I cannot see Russians using them indiscriminately.
Most likely they would follow the clear and obvious reading of Articles 28 and 29 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. ISIS is responsible for any civilian deaths in this city they use as a base. The civilians qualify as Protected Persons within enemy physical control, and cannot be used to render certain points and areas immune from military operations. Acquiescence to popular posturing long ago forced our armed forces into rules of engagement as harmful them as the enemy. The basic rule should always be that if you find yourself in a fair fight you have failed to plan correctly.
75 sorties by 65 planes (think combination of B52s, B1s, and even larger bombers) each dropping lots of dumb bombs - tonnage (some were smart, but those are used up now) would make a dent in any city of any size. Think thousands dead already, others fleeing to Iraq.
The Russians do not now nor ever have cared about civilians deaths in war, Geneva Convention or not. The key word is ‘systematically’; when they are done, there will literally be only rubble to bounce over the entire former city area.