PARIS — With Russian warplanes bombing Syria for a third day, French President Francois Holland told President Vladimir Putin on Friday that Moscow’s airstrikes must be confined to attacking Islamic State militants, not other rebels opposing the Damascus government.

Hollande used a meeting on Ukraine to address Western concerns that Russia’s airstrikes would serve to strengthen Syrian President Bashar Assad by targeting rebels – perhaps including some aligned with the U.S. – rather than hitting IS fighters it has promised to attack.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel leaves the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, after a meeting Friday with French President Francois Hollande, left, on the prospects for peace in Ukraine. The Associated Press

Allies in a U.S.-led coalition that is conducting its own air campaign in Syria called on Russia to cease attacks on the Syrian opposition and to focus on fighting the Islamic State group. A joint statement by France, Turkey, the U.S. Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Britain expressed concern that Russia’s actions will “only fuel more extremism and radicalization.”

The Russian Defense Ministry released images showing that its jets hit an Islamic State-held area near its de facto capital of Raqqa in northern Syria on Thursday. It said there were 14 new missions Friday.

Hollande said he told Putin that only one of Russia’s strikes in three days hit at the Islamic State, also known as ISIL, ISIS and Daesh. The other strikes, Hollande added, were on areas controlled by the opposition.

“Russia has always been involved in Syria. Since the beginning, Russia has supported the regime of Bashar Assad and furnished him weapons, even if it goes further now,” Hollande told reporters. “But what I told Mr. Putin is that the strikes must concern Daesh, and only Daesh.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who also attended the meeting with Putin, added that the leaders “said very clearly that Daesh was the enemy that we needed to fight.”

“We also said that we needed a political solution for Syria that should take into consideration the opposition’s interests and that opposition has always had our support,” she added.

In Washington, President Barack Obama said Russia’s military campaign fails to distinguish between terrorist groups and moderate rebel forces with a legitimate interest in a negotiated end to the civil war. He called Russia’s military involvement, including airstrikes, a self-defeating exercise that will move the Syrian conflict further away from a solution.

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