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Russian cannot fight Islamic State and support Assad in Syria - Britain says


    MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Russia cannot fight Islamic State militants in Syria and support President Bashar al-Assad at the same time, British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond said on Sunday.

    "Russian support for him will drive the opposition in Syria into the arms of ISIL (Islamic State) strengthening the evil that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin says he wants to defeat," Hammond told the Conservative Party conference in the northern city of Manchester.

    (Reporting by William James and Elizabeth Piper, editing by Guy Faulconbridge)