FILE PHOTO: Sukhoi Su-24 attack aircraft before departing for its permanent base in Russia from Khmeimim Air Base in Syria. © Vadim Grishankin / Sputnik
Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, plans to convert Russia’s Khmeimim air base into a training and humanitarian hub, the Russian business daily Kommersant reported on April 24, citing a Syrian source familiar with the situation.
The base would come under “joint management” by Russia and Syria but serve “only non-military purposes,” the source said. The Syrian government wants to use the facility to train their forces — drawn largely from radical armed groups — which, the source added, lack conventional military skills.
Kommersant also reported, citing the Lebanese newspaper Al-Modon, that Damascus would like to bring in Russian instructors for the training programs.
“The training will most likely be conducted under the supervision of Russian experts, because the types of Russian weapons and military vehicles manufactured in the Soviet era necessitates the supervision of these experts, especially given that the Syrian army is currently limited to Russian weapons and some Turkish military and logistical equipment,” the news paper quotes Syrian military sources as saying in a report published on April 22.
Khmeimim, located near the city of Jableh, is one of two bases Russia maintains on the Syrian coast, with the other being a naval facility inside the port of Tartus.
While Russia quickly built reactions with the new government in Syria after the fall of the regime of former president Bashar al-Assad, an agreement on the future of Russian bases on the country’s coast is yet to be reached.
The reports from Kommersant and Al-Modon were not surprising as Sharaa himself openly spoke about the idea of using Russian bases as training centers last month.
“Out of dozens of bases, only two remain, and we are trying to turn them into training bases for the Syrian army,” the Syrian president said during a visit to the United Kingdom.
The Russian military has already withdrawn much equipment from Khmeimim, including the S-400 air defense system that was protecting the air base and the naval facility in Tartus. However, it continues to operate as a hub for Russian cargo flights to Africa.
Earlier this month, the United States evacuated one of its last bases in Syria as a part of a plan to end its military presence in the war-torn country. It won’t be surprising if Russia, and even Turkey, followed suit by significantly reducing their presence there.
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tragic that russia must endure the indignity of having to tolerate inhuman terrorist savages drawing their stinky breath in syria.
they dont have to train the al quaida air force. they could just have the dignity to understand they lost and leave.
they could evacuate the minorities from syria and bring them to russia so they can live. cause al quaida will kill them all. they could have kicked assad to the curb and just secured the alevite and christian territories and fortified them while al quaida was preparing to attack damaskus.
it’ll be a mistake for russia to train these salafi/takfiri terrorist scum.