Contents tagged with Syria

  • Russian military leave key positions in northern Syria

    The Russian military left Tel Rifaat, a key city in the Aleppo province in northern Syria, reports Al-Masdar News.

    The Russian military left the city after a week of joint maneuvers with the armed forces of Turkey. Despite the withdrawal of the Russian military, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) refused to leave the village and strengthened its defense positions in the Tel Rifaat area.

    It is also reported that Turkey could not agree with Iran on the withdrawal of troops from the suburbs of Aleppo. …

  • Russian Foreign Minister comments on attacks in Syria without mentioning Israel

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was extremely evasive in his comments to Arab journalists about the Israeli operations in Syria.

    In an interview with the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram ahead of his visit to Egypt, Lavrov answered many questions concerning Russia-Egypt relations and developments in the Middle East.

    One of the questions he was asked was whether Moscow’s stance on the “Israel’s ongoing bombardments of Syrian territory” had grown “softer” compared to its stance in 2018, when …

  • Media: Israeli jets flew through two Arab states to attack Syria

    The Israeli jets that attacked targets in Syria on March 27 entered Syrian airspace through Jordan and Iraq, according to the Russian news outlet Militaryarms.ru. In doing so, the fighters avoided entering the zone where they would have been easily detected and intercepted by the S-300 aerial defense system.

    Another news outlet, Avia.pro, says that the Israeli Air Force operation conducted on March 27 should be considered a success. Not only did the Israeli jets enter Syrian airspace, they …

  • Turkey opens military operation control center in eastern Syria

    On March 31, Turkish Minister of Defense, Hulusi Akar, accompanied by the commanders of the country's troops, inspected military units stationed near the border with Syria. As part of the trip, the head of the military department took part in the opening of the Joint Operational Center for the management of the planned “anti-terrorist operation” in Syria’s territory, located east of the Euphrates River, reports Anadolu.

    The Turkish generals also drew attention to the military actions in …

  • Media provides details about deaths of Russian officers in Syria

    The location of the Russian major and two colonels who were killed in Syria may have been given out to the militants by the former Islamic State fighters or pro-Iranian units, reports Novaya Gazeta.

    Several days ago, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported deaths of three military in Syria as a result of militants’ attack at the end of February. Kremlin did not disclose any details of what happened.

    According to Novaya Gazeta, victims were a major and two colonels. They drove in a UAZ …

  • Israel carries out airstrike in Syria

    The Syrian news agency SANA has reported a series of explosions caused by airstrikes near the Aleppo airport and the adjacent industrial zones. Israeli fighter jets are believed to be behind the attack.

    “At around 23:00 [local time] on Wednesday, our aerial defense systems repelled an Israeli aerial attack on a number of facilities in the Shaykh Najjar industrial zone north-east of Aleppo, and shot down several missiles,” SANA cites its source as saying. The losses were reportedly limited to “ …

  • Media: Netanyahu pitched Syrian settlement plan to Putin and Trump

    Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, presented his settlement plan for Syria to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the United States President Donald Trump, reports The Times of Israel, quoting an unnamed high-ranking official.

    The Times of Israel did not specify when the presidents of the United States and Russia received proposals for a Syrian settlement from the Israeli prime minister. According to the newspaper, Putin showed interest in Netanyahu’s plan.

    The official noted that …

  • Russian Foreign Ministry confirms death of three officers in Syria

    The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that three officers from the Russian contingent in Syria, who were officially reported missing in February 2019, were killed in Syria.

    On February 22 in Syria, a car with three Russian servicemen, a major and two colonels, was ambushed by Islamic State militants. For a long time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not confirm the death of the servicemen, claiming that they were simply missing. However, it became known later that the military were …

  • Kremlin: Russia to adjust Crimea communication strategy in light of Trump’s Golan Heights decision

    The Russian Foreign Ministry intends to adjust its communication strategy on Crimea in light of the US’s pledge to recognize Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, the department’s spokesperson Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook in response to a statement by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

    On Saturday, a Sky News reporter suggested that by condemning the annexation of Crimea but recognizing the annexation of the Golan Heights, the US is demonstrating double standards in its policy. Pompeo …

  • Two Russian military aircraft land in Venezuela

    Two Russian military transport planes landed in Venezuela on 23 March, according to flight-tracking data from CivMilAir. The Venezuelan news outlet El Nacional reports that the planes were transporting a group of Russian soldiers led by Colonel General Vasily Tonkoshkurov.

    El Nacional cites a post on Twitter by reporter Javier Mayorca, who claims that “a group of 99 Russian soldiers” had landed at the Caracas airport, where they were met by Marianni Mata, head of the Venezuelan Defense …