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For the third day in a row, Russian forces shot down an armed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which was on its way to bomb Hmeimim airbase in the western Syrian governorate of Lattakia. According to the Russian Centre for the Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in Syria, the UAV was launched from “a territory occupied by illegal armed formations.”
“The anti-aircraft systems eliminated the air target at a considerable distance from the air base. No casualties or material damage was caused. The Hmeimim Air Base functions as planned,” the Russian reconciliation center said in an official statement.
Local observers believe that radical groups such as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) are launching these armed UAVs from the northern Lattakia countryside and the northwestern Hama countryside.
According to Syrian pro-government activists, the SAA and its allies will soon launch a ground attack to capture the remaining strongholds of the militants in the governorates of Hama and Lattakia as a response to these attacks on Hmeimim airbase.
