File image.
Russian forces repelled on May 20 morning an attack on Khmeimim Air Base on the Syrian coast, killing several militants.
Khmeimim is one of two facilities the Russian military maintains in areas controlled by Syria’s Interim government, with the other being Tartus naval base further down along the coast.
The attack began after several unidentified drones were intercepted over Khmeimim earlier in the morning. Videos posted to social networks showed fierce clashes in the outskirts of the air base. Heavy machine guns were apparently used in the clashes.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based monitoring group, speculated that the attack was carried out by a group affiliated with the forces of the Syrian Islamist-led government. Meanwhile, other Syrian news sources said that foreign militants were behind the attack.
According to Russian news sources, at least five militants attacked Khmeimim. At least four of them were killed by Russian forces.
Syrian government forces deployed large reinforcements around Khmeimim after the clashes. Several checkpoints were set and the movement of civilians was restricted.
Thousands of refugees have been taking shelter in Khmeimim and its outskirts since early last March, when a government crackdown claimed the lives of more than 1,600 people, mostly members of the Alawite religious minority which make up the majority of the coast’s population.
Since the deadly crackdown, the Russian bases in Khmeimim and Tartus have been attacked with drones more than once with no group claiming responsibility. None of the attacks was successful.
Moscow and Damascus maintain high levels of communications, but an agreement on the future of Russian bases on the coast is yet to be reached.
Addressing the situation in Syria, especially on the coast, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on May 20 that Moscow was deeply concerned.
“The situation in the Middle East is particularly troubling, especially in Syria, where groups of radical militants commit real acts of ethnic cleansing and mass executions on ethnic and religious grounds,” the minister stated, according to the TASS news agency.
The latest attack on Khmeimim represents a serious escalation, especially that it is very hard to imagine how it could happen without the knowledge of Syrian government forces which are tightly controlling the coast. Russia could respond by expanding its control on the coast to better guard its bases, if the government refuses to cooperate.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence
NOW hosted at southfront.press
Previously, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.org.
The .org domain name had been blocked by the US (NATO) (https://southfront.press/southfront-org-blocked-by-u-s-controlled-global-internet-supervisor/) globally, outlawed and without any explanation
Back before that, from 2013 to 2015, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.com
what a strange set of developments. now that the assad regime has been toppled, we cannot claim we are there “invited and supported by intl law”, can we? what exactly are ru interests in syria now? it seems like israel is using ru to do its dirty work and kill off more muzzie militants. israel’s interests and russia’s seem to be one and the same again.
the khazarian mafia is almost exclusively russian-jew oligarchs. that should help you figure out why it seems strange
lost all respect for poutine and those in the russian federation’s government who view their men and women in uniform just like the u.$.a. does. poutine and the rest of the laughing stock peanut gallery around him know and understand where tiny hat usery comes in that make them rich… and who knows?…
maybe we will see larry fink and vladimir poutine one day soon toasting a rare earth minerals deal complete with new immigrants in the eastern donbas to replace all of the ones that got slaughtered the past 11 years?!!!
dissing putin is a stated goal of nato propaganda.
that’s why i said what i said about 9/11 on the other thread about mozart mercs… they are all in on it.
i know, there are girls being in the russian base and hts wants to sell them for prostitutes and organs, which is why the base hasn’t been turned into a parking lot yet.
htt ps://thec radle.co/ar tic les/syr ias-sto len-daug hters-th e-hts-camp aign-to-en slave-ala wite-w om en
hts terrorists can bomb putin’s base, but putin won’t say anything. if they tried this with trump’s base or with the bases israel has set up across syria, it would at least be fun.
anglozionazi fan
did you mean putin?
right? its weird.
russia was using the bases in syria before bashir assad came into power and before the nato/israeli proxy army began attacking. they want access to the mediterranean. that’s the reason why they are still there. that’s the reason they’ve been there for years. they don’t want nato strategically cutting them off from access to the mediterranean. get a clue.
ask assad how much use russia was in “liquidating” terrorists…heheheeeh
they were very useful actually. the real question is whether there is a mutual interest in depopulating the region for a greater israel. all while showcasing the might of the russian mic
have you noticed putin and nutty yahoo dont have public meetings anymore? i think hes trying to hide it lol
“hehehe” the nutter is squealing yet again
your daughter squeals when i pop her in the pooper…heheheheehehe
americunt only pop 9 yr boy in pooper
voluntarily and purely for fun, because apart from fun, trump had no reason to kill soleimani. all their actions are done out of pure evil, carter even put these religious freaks in power in iran because he was much evil and hated iranians.
ht t ps://w w w.b bc.co m/ne ws/w orl d-us-ca nada- 36431160
this is called malice, and the us does it out of malice because it hates all of asia, europe, south america, and africa.
if he whines, he pretends to be poor, but in reality he knows exactly what he’s going to do. why do you think they killed bin laden, gaddafi, and why is trump killing isis? the mafia does this so that there are no witnesses, so that the godfathers and donnies don’t go to prison. this old bastard is capable of taking damascus and beirut without a problem, and if putler had bases in israel (instead of syria), no one would notice.
it was the syrian arab army that just let 30,000 terrorists just walk in without much of a fight. russia and iran were doing more than the syrians until it was apparent that they weren’t going to fight. that’s a syrian and an arab issue to figure out.
better to ask isis, you nazi fool
time to send the fleet. syria is a sinking ship. carve off whatever land you can, or else someone else will.
netanyahu has already started because he has practically all of southern syria under control and has done nothing to defend his friend putler.
if russia plans to leave syria, do take the alawites who want to leave as well. it seems the most humane thing to do.
more cia groups bite that dust
you meant alawites with “militants”?
thank you mr.putin for leaving a job well done….
funny how they dont attack us, israel, or turkey, very odd. thank you putin.
it’s not the end of all days and israel now has work to do in gaza.then perhaps their commander ghassan alian will remember that he could repeat ante gotovina success and that his druze (he is an israeli druze) are in danger.
he said he would defend the syrian druzes, and i believe he is capable of repeating ante gotovina’s success.
exactly. these terrorists haven’t fired a single bullet or thrown a rock at the us, israel or turkey. they are supported by them. i truly believe they are israeli/nato special forces as the spearhead, intelligence operatives and mercenaries from around the world and fake muslims.
سوريا: الشيخ غزال غزال: اللامركزية السياسية أو الفيدرالية لم تعد مجرد رد فعل دفاعي على ما نتعرض له بل أصبحت اليوم هدفاً ملحاً 20 أيار 23:01
سوريا: الشيخ غزال غزال: لم يتم الافراج بعد عن آلاف المعتقلين المغيبين دون تهمة أو محاكمة ولم يكشف عن مصير المفقودين والمخطوفين 20 أيار 23:01 سوريا: رئيس المجلس الإسلامي العلوي الأعلى في سوريا والمهجر الشيخ غزال غزال: عمليات القتل والتهجير والاعتقال غير المبررة مستمرة
ht tps ://w ww.al maya dee n.net /sho rt ne ws
the druze have general alian in the idf. the alawites have been betrayed by iran and russia, so they only have a bunch of merchandise that hts will sell one day or burn alive in a russian base. it will be terrible for iran when russia betrays it and the israelis destroy iran’s nuclear facilities. but one day, russia will see how many allies it has when a democrat is in the white house.
i think like turkey, russia will go where the wind blows. from what we have seen these past 50+ years, is that the us cannot win a war. it’s possible that the us and israel cannot win against iran. and certainly not china
also, the east is ascendant just like after the fall of the roman empire … whereas the west is decadent and in decline. and not just economically … but politically as well.
rome fell; the roman empire didn’t. it just got religion………
no, the religion of satanism was successful in dividing the original church of jesus into rome in the west, and byzantium in the east. the war against the message of jesus has gone on through the centuries: the war in ukraine is part of it. so was the reformation and the first world war.
no. the us, turkey, israel and their fellow syrians sold them out. it was the syrian arab army that sat back and did next to nothing when they advanced. it was their own commanders. russia is still over there, iran was the last to leave and left only after it was apparent the syrians themselves weren’t going to fight.
it’s israel the us and turkey that back the terrorists. they betrayed the alawites. don’t blame russia and iran.
there is blame enough to go around. russia decided not to protect assad because they felt he was not taking their advice. iran felt assad was turning on them. both russia and iran pushed assad into his situation. russia is responsible in that they are the ones who came up with the idlib solution that became a problem. they also forbade syria from fully protecting themselves. they refused to allow iranian air defense or syria to use their s-300s.
both russia and iran pushed the arab league to take syria back into the fold. this ‘normalization’ allowed them (gulf arabs) to buy assads military out from under him and is why they did not fight. assad only went to the arab league because he was constantly under attack and not allowed to respond in kind and needed to help his country. the arab league is of course pro-u.s./israel.
assad’s mistake was relying on his old contacts who were extremely corrupt. but he did this because he needed to smuggle in needed supplies. in the end russia caused this because putin would not stand against israel…or allow syria to. putin was also leery of pursuing syrian sovereignty as he was over stretched and felt this was a ploy to weaken russia on another front. assad did ask for help and was denied.
the resulted in distrust between iran and russia. this is why a pact was signed. the most notable part of this pact is that neither will make agreements that would be detrimental to the other. this is a direct reference to the cause of the collapse of syria…russian agreements with israel. basically a non-backstabbing clause. the causes of the syria disaster is known by both sides.
russia recognizes they were at fault as much as anyone and also knows the importance of iran. iran cannot fall, it would be a disaster for russia and an invasion route and they very much know it. russia made the decision to fully back iran, because they absolutely have to. lessons learned all around, just too late for 1,000s of dead syrians.
why doesn’t the lame as iraqi government kick the us out and bring in the russians? iraq has air bases and naval facilities too. maybe not as big as the ones already prepared in syria, but they exist. that way russia can leave syria to the syrians and the terrorists they just let right tf in.
algeria is also an option. they are a bit more stable, a good ways away from fakesrael and along the mediterranean. if the us and their nato allies can menace and threaten russia with airbases in asia and europe, russia can have airbases in africa and north africa. latin america can be an option too. f the monroe doctrine, the us has no respect for boundaries, why should anyone else.
russia has a base in libya and works with several groups, including haftar. haftar is libyan traitor to qaddafi who fled to the u.s. and works with the cia and mossad, having met with bibi as well. russia works with him too. russia is also opening up the rest of africa, witness burkina faso, et al. the u.s. is losing big time in africa due to their screwing every last country there. china is making inroads as well.
believe it or not the u.s. stills controls iraqi purse-strings, even after all these years. they have un sanctions that allows the u.s. to control their finances. the u.s. has used this continuously to threaten to steal their reserves and leave them broke. then, of course, there are those in every country that takes the money and screws their country. when the u.s. instigated an uprising the last time, trump threatened the iraqi leader with an iraqi maidan and financial ruin.
f*ck around, find out…