The long-range bombers took off from near the Iranian city of Hamedan, around 280 kilometers (175 miles) southwest of the Iranian capital, and struck targets in three provinces in northern and eastern Syria. Iran and Russian Federation are the two firmest backers of the Assad regime, with Tehran commanding thousands of troops fighting for him on the ground as Russian Federation provides airpower.
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The Russian planes flew from and returned to Hamadan air base, in northwestern Iran, apparently after Iraq allowed them to traverse its airspace.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Tuesday that the munitions, which can cause excruciating and often fatal burns, have been used at least 18 times over the past six weeks.
It is also apparently the first time since before the 1979 Iranian revolution that Tehran has allowed a foreign power to use its territory for military operations, Reuters reported.
The bombers were supported by fighter jets from Syria’s Hmeimeem base that Russia’s used to carry out airstrikes in support of President Bashar al-Assad since September.
It comes a day after Russia’s defense minister said Moscow and Washington are edging closer to an agreement on Syria that would help defuse the situation in the besieged northern city of Aleppo. “You can ask them about that”, he said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media about the ongoing talks.
“The Russians did notify the coalition as per the memorandum of understanding for safety of flight”, United States military spokesman Colonel Chris Garver said.
Using the Iranian base will cut down flight times significantly, Al Masdar News said, adding that bombers striking areas near the city of Palmyra need to fly just 900 kilometres from Hamedan as opposed to over 2,000 kilometres from Mozdok. “They did not impact coalition operations in either Iraq or Syria during the time”, the USA colonel emphasized. In Tehran, the state-run IRNA news agency quoted Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, as saying that Tehran and Moscow have exchanged “capacity and possibilities” in the fight against DAESH.
“The Russians did notify the coalition” under the memorandum of understanding on flight safety over Syria that was agreed to by the two countries, said Army Col. Chris Garver, a spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve. Nusra severed ties with Al-Qaeda earlier this month and changed its name to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (JFS). It did not state where the aircraft were based.
Joint US-Russian action against the then Al Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat Al Nusra, was actively discussed in recent months, although such conversations seem to have died down as of late amid Al Nusra dropping its Al Qaeda moniker and changing its name, Syrian rebels breaking a government siege in Aleppo and worldwide criticism of Russia’s heavy-handed air strikes against rebel-held areas of Syria. “This, in turn, will enable a larger bomb load, reduce response time to arising problems, as well as decrease fuel consumption and the general tear of the aircraft”, Russian political expert Victor Murakhovsky said.
The report described the air base as “ideal for providing covert ground support to Russian combat missions”. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov was in Tehran on Monday, where he discussed the “high mutual interest” of deeper cooperation between Russia and Iran in the Middle East, the Russian foreign ministry said.
The Tupolev-22 was originally a Cold War-era strategic bomber first in service in the 1960s as part of Russia’s nuclear forces.
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has held several meetings over the past year with Iranian counterpart Gen Hossein Dehghan, most recently in June in Tehran, where they pledged to deliver a “decisive” battle against “all terrorist groups”.
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