UN resolution to "redouble" action against IS will put civilians in the firing line say humanitarians

Doctors Without Borders, said that unless protective measures were put in place to ensure civilians were safe from further bombing, Syrians would be caught up in "a vicious cycle of hate and war."

The French-drafted document which urges all 15 UN member states - including Russia, the United States, France and the UK - to "take all necessary measures" in the fight against IS was adopted by a unanimous vote late on Friday.

“The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant constitutes a global and unprecedented threat to international peace and security,” said the resolution.

However Boulet Desbareau said he was alarmed by the "aggressive language" of the Security Council members and the lack of consideration for the lives of ordinary Syrians who were effectively in "a hostage situation", unable to escape airstrikes and bombardments coming from all sides.

"My first reaction to the Security Council decision was to think that it has been mandated to offer security to people," he told the Sunday Herald. "How are they going to ensure that civilians do not become the victims here? I haven't seen any explicit measures put in place to keep civilians and hospitals safe.

"I could just hear more and more aggressive language. If no protective measures are agreed we can guess the results; there will be more deaths of civilians and of kids. We create more and more hate and we enter into a vicious cycle of hate and war.

"We have to put the Syrian people first. It is a choice, a political choice. But we [MSF] have to deal with the consequences."

From January until October this year about 40 percent of the violent deaths seen by MSF as result of bombardments in the150 hospitals and mobile medical units it supports were women and children, he claimed. The figure has risen from 25 percent the previous year.

"When there are heavy airstrikes that can rise to 60 percent," he added. "This is the kind of death toll that we have rarely experienced in other conflicts.

"The people who are trying to assist during the bombardments are targeted; 34 percent of hospitals have been wholly or partially destroyed.

"We are really wondering when this nightmare will finish. One major worry is that there will be no doctors left if this continues

"We try to work in very difficult conditions, doctors are exhausted. Here comes an additional layer of violence when the health service is about to collapse. I don't think people realise the level of disaster. It's not possible."

The continued bombing was further fuelling the radicalisation of Syrians "without hope", added Boulet Desbareau.

Last September a US-coalition started bombing IS militant targets, who had seized Syrian territory in the midst of the civil war. Russia began airstrikes in Syria in September.

Estimates on the total death toll vary dramatically with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reporting 330,000 deaths and the United Nations stating 250,000 Syrians have died in the armed conflict. According to the Syrian Network For Human Rights 273 people were killed by the Russian forces last month alone.

However the UN resolution was welcomed by Syria’s UN ambassador, Bashar Ja’afari. “Welcome to everybody who finally woke up and joined the club of combating terrorists,” he told reporters before the vote on the French-drafted resolution.

David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, who this week indicated he would ask MPs to approve British airstrikes against IS in Syria by Christmas, said the resolution was an “important moment”.

“The world has united against Isil [Islamic State]. The international community has come together and has resolved to defeat this evil, which threatens people of every country and every religion,” he added.

“The UN security council has unanimously backed action against this evil death cult in both Syria and Iraq."

US President Barrack Obama said the world was determined "to push back on the hateful ideologies that fuel this terrorism". "We will not allow these killers to have a safe haven," he said.

Malaysia's leader also condemned the Islamic State (IS) as an "evil" terrorist group and claimed his Muslim-majority country was ready to join others to defeat it.

However prime minister Najib Razak stressed that a military solution alone was not enough and said that more needed to be done to ensure the the ideology of IS was "vanquished" and that moderation was needed.

"This is how Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King won the hearts and minds of their enemies," he said. "They won by transforming their foes into friends."

Meanwhile Russia says it has intensified its air raids on what it calls "terrorist" targets in Syria and has increased the number of aircraft it has to 69.

The BBC has reported that Russian ground crew are inscribing the words "For Paris" on some bombs destined to be dropped on targets in Syria, marking them as "revenge attacks" for the assault on Paris last Friday.

President Vladimir Putin has said the current level of attacks was not enough to defeat so-called Islamic State (IS) and called for the UK to offer its support.

However on Friday Turkey has summoned Russia's ambassador in protest over the "intensive" bombing of Turkmen villages in northern Syria by Russian warplanes.

In the meeting with the ambassador, Andrei Karlov, Turkey called for an immediate end to the Russian military operation, which is near the Turkish border, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"It was stressed that the Russian side's actions were not a fight against terror, but they bombed civilian Turkmen villages and this could lead to serious consequences," the foreign ministry said.

Ankara has traditionally expressed solidarity with the Syrian Turkmen, who are Syrians of Turkish descent.

President Tayyip Erdogan has voiced his concern about Russia's increasing involvement in the Syrian conflict and expressed anger at Russian incursions into Turkish air space in October.