It is thought to be the first time Russian Federation has struck targets inside Syria from Iran since it launched a bombing campaign to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in September past year.
Advertisement
An unnamed military source also told Interfax news agency yesterday that the Russian army had sent requests to Iran and Iraq to fire cruise missiles across their airspace.
In January, Russia and Iran signed a military cooperation deal focused on training and fighting terrorism. Last month, al-Nusra Front changed its name to Jabhat Fatah al-Sham.
It said the deployment would allow the Russian air force to cut flight times by 60 percent and increase bombing payloads.
It was the first time Russian Federation has used the territory of another nation, apart from Syria itself, to launch such strikes since the Kremlin launched a bombing campaign to support Syrian President Bashar Assad last September.
The Tupolev-22M3 is “a fairly large, supersonic, long-range, strategic bomber”.
Turkey used to be at odds with Iran and Russian Federation over Syria. Russia’s long range bombers can’t use the shorter runways at its airbase in Syria, and until now have been taking off at airbases inside Russian Federation. The bombing runs launched Tuesday took place on the 37 anniversary of their deaths.
An AFP correspondent in eastern districts of Aleppo said there were heavy air strikes throughout Monday night and into the day on Tuesday on both those districts.
Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has held several meetings over the past year with Iranian counterpart General Hossein Dehghan, most recently in June in Tehran, where they pledged to deliver a “decisive” battle against “all terrorist groups”.
An unnamed military source told Interfax news agency on Monday that Russian Federation had also sent requests to Iran and Iraq to fire cruise missiles across their airspace.
Mr. Abadi said his government had previously given Russian forces overflight permission as long as they remained in certain flight corridors that bypass major cities, so today’s sorties are nothing new.
The nascent deal was further strained in June, after Russian Federation bombed a base used by British and United States special forces.
The new development marks Russia’s expanding role and presence in the Middle East.
The Russians are using the Iranian base as a “symbolic gesture” to demonstrate to the USA that they’re “carrying out their plans militarily”, Rashad al-Kattan, a political and security risk analyst who’s a fellow at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, said from London. It also marked the first time Russian Federation has used a third nation (other than Syria and Russian Federation itself) to attack targets inside Syria.
Advertisement
Fighting for control of Aleppo, a former economic hub in northwestern Syria, has intensified after regime troops seized control of the last supply route into rebel-held areas in mid-July.
