A Russian Su-24 strike aircraft in the sky over the Khmeimim airbase in Syria. Photo: Dmitriy Vinogradov / RIA Novosti
A series of Russian airstrikes have reportedly targeted militants operating near the United States-led coalition garrison in the southeastern Syrian area of al-Tanf.
Video footage of the Russian airstrikes surfaced online on July 7. Nevertheless, it is still unclear when exactly the airstrikes took place. The coalition and Syrian opposition media didn’t report any attack on the garrison or nearby areas in recent days.
Around 200 U.S. troops are usually deployed at al-Tanf, along with hundreds of militants from a proxy group known as the Syrian Free Army.
The coalition maintains a 55-kilometer no-fly zone around al-Tanf. Despite this, Russian fighter jets conduct armed patrols over the garrison on a regular basis, likely to monitor suspicious activities there.
The reports of Russian airstrikes on al-Tanf came less than a week after the U.S.-led coalition announced a series of military exercises with its proxies in the garrison as well as in a number of bases in the northeastern Syrian governorates of al-Hasakah and Deir Ezzor.
In May, Sergey Naryshkin, director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, accused the U.S. of training ISIS terrorists in al-Tanf on sabotage. Later in June, Alexander Lavrentiev, the Russian president’s special envoy for Syria, said that the coalition was strengthening its military contingent in the garrison and other parts of Syria.
The U.S.-led coalition claims that it is present in al-Tanf to counter ISIS. However, the real purpose of the garrison is to block a strategic highway that links Damascus with the Iraqi capital, Baghdada. In addition, the garrison is reportedly being used as an outpost to collect intelligence, stage sabotage acts and facilitate Israeli strikes against Syria.
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konečne!!! treba medzi nich zasiať nedôveru!!! militanti nakoniec sami prídu na to že ich darebácky štát usa neochráni. treba viesť takéto útoky na teroristov aj keď je to v zóne kde sú dislokované okupačné vojská usa!!! je to predsa územie sýrie!!! nakoľko br osn nekoná tak ako by mala tak je to teraz na rf a na sýrii, prípadne na iráne a číne!!!
the time is nearing to flatten the yank parasite agglomeration at al tanf
february 7, 2018. remember?
get the jew loving yankee whores out of syria!
retailation to us support of ukraine? one step closer to a global war. usa and nato have to take russian statements more serious! this was a well calculated warning.
we need to see more ‘collateral damage’ next time, and that chicken will roost.
the u.s. spends nearly 2 trillion on defense and servicing it’s debt annually yet they defend nothing and mindlessly try to steal and conquer everything for the ambitions of the super rich when the people in reality should be defended from their leaders.
losing in ukraine and us terrorists taken out in syria.