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.
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Russia’s announcement that it’s using an Iranian base to carry out attacks in Syria comes after President Vladimir Putin discussed the fight against terrorism with Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani when they met in Azerbaijan last week.
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. “They did not impact coalition operations in either Iraq or Syria during the time”. Now, those same bombers need to fly only about 400 miles from Iran to Syria, Iran’s Fars News Agency reported Tuesday.
In Tehran, the state-run IRNA news agency quoted Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, as saying on Tuesday that Tehran and Moscow have exchanged “capacity and possibilities” in the fight against the Islamic State group.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said earlier that Russian warplanes took off on Tuesday from a base in Iran to target IS and other militants in Syria.
The channel, citing Iranian and Arab media, said it was unclear how many Russian bombers had arrived at the base.
Shoigu claimed separately in comments aired Monday that Russia and the United States are also close to joining forces in some form around Syria’s ravaged second city of Aleppo, where Russian planes and regime troops are battling rebels for control.
Moscow and Tehran have been expanding their ties in recent months after most of the sanctions against Iran were lifted following the nuclear deal with world powers.
“We know that the chances of Daesh and other terrorist organizations obtaining anti-aircraft weapons are minimal, but nevertheless, using only one military base [Hmeymim, Syria] bears some limited risks for our Aerospace Forces”, Sen. It said a Russian Il-76 “Candid” transport plane also landed there around the same time before both took off, suggesting the Su-34 may have suffered a mechanical issue.
“On 16 August, Tu-22M3 long-range bombers and Su-34 frontline bombers, flying with a full bomb load from the Hamadan air base (Islamic Republic of Iran), conducted a group air strike against targets of the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist groups in the provinces of Aleppo, Deir Ezzor and Idlib”, the defence ministry statement said. Russia’s Tu-22M3 bomber is capable of carrying more than 20 metric tons of bombs if flown from Iran.
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Iran’s constitution, ratified after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, bans the establishment of any foreign military base in the country. As the West has retreated from the region, Russian Federation has surged ahead – including into Iran, a country that was viscerally unwilling to allow foreign forces on its soil.
