Images by Roman Saponkov
Tsarizm has been reporting on attacks on Russian facilities since the New Year on the country’s permanent facilities in Syria, the port at Tartus and the airbase near Latakia, Hmeimim. The attacks have been mostly ignored by the Western medial. However, we believe the issue is important as we are starting to hear accusations from Russian officials that the attacks are enabled, or even planned by Western intelligence services. On the first day of 2018 Islamist forces attacked Hmeimim with mortars and which killed at least two servicemen and, according to Russian media, destroyed at least 7 Russian military aircraft, including combat jets and helicopters.
Tsarizm reported Sunday that Islamists attacked the facilities again over the weekend using drones. At the time, Russian media reported the attacks were easily repulsed by Russian air defense and the unmanned aerial vehicles were primitive. It now seems the attacks were much more broad and sophisticated than first reported.
Russian Middle East Partial Withdrawal Emboldening Islamist Forces, Kremlin Blames US
Russian news outlet Interfax is reporting today that Islamists used drones from over fifty miles away that were guided by GPS and were sophisticated machines.
“Ten drone unmanned aerial vehicles were approaching the Russian airbase” Khmeimim “and three more – to the point of material and technical support of the Russian Navy in the city of Tartus…Terrorists for the first time massively used unmanned aerial aircraft, launched from a range of more than 50 km with the use of modern guidance technology on the satellite GPS coordinates,” reported the Russian Defense Ministry. “Such attacks can be carried out by terrorists from a range of about 100 km.”
“The fact of use by militants of impactless unmanned aerial vehicles of aircraft type indicates that the militants have been transferred to technologies that allow carrying out terrorist acts using such unmanned aerial vehicles in any country,” the military department of the Russian Federation said, reported Interfax.
“Seven unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed by the regular anti-aircraft missile and gun complexes Pantsir-S of Russian air defense units carrying round-the-clock combat duty.” According to the Ministry of Defense, six more drones intercepted Russian electronic warfare units. “Three of them were planted in controlled territory outside the base, and three more unmanned aerial vehicles detonated during the landing from collision with the ground.”
“Behind the attack there is, in my opinion, the” Islamic state. “At the same time, I remain in my opinion – it (the organization) does not just act independently, but with the help of the relevant special services of Western countries, with their direct connivance, their assistance,” said Yury Shvytkin, deputy chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee, reported RIA.
“The Islamic state *” in this case acts in some way, like a puppet in the hands of Western countries,” he added.
Russian officials have repeatedly pushed the narrative that the West is training and harboring Islamic State fighters at bases in Syria. The Kremlin obviously has been concerned about these type of Islamist attacks after they withdrew the bulk of Russian military forces from the Area. While the Western media focuses on ghosts of non-existent collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, a real conflict between the two nations could be brewing in Syria.
