Breaking Alert – Russian Planes Land in Syria

Russian planes, including two giant Antonov-124 Condor military transport planes and a large passenger plane, have landed in Syria. The planes touched down at Assad International Airport on Syria’s Mediterranean coast.

Some believe the Russian planes held a military advance team. Observers saw large containers being unloaded from the transport planes. But no one knows what is in those containers. And no one has officially identified the passengers who arrived.

A U.S. official says Russia is setting up a forward operating base at the airfield. They have erected modular housing units at the airport. The units are big enough to house over a thousand people. The Russians have also installed portable air traffic control equipment. Russian special operations forces have been reported at the Syrian Naval Academy near Latikiya.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry telephoned Russian Secretary of State Sergei Lavrov over the weekend and warned against increased Russian involvement in the Syrian civil war. That war has already claimed nearly 250,000 lives. The war has also created the biggest refugee crisis since World War II.

“Our concern would be that any effort to bolster the Assad regime right now would potentially be destabilizing,” Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said Tuesday.

Russia insists that the Russian planes were delivering humanitarian aid. Moscow says its flights have been delivering aid and helping evacuate Russian nationals from the country during the conflict.

Russia is a long-time ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Moscow has provided President Assad with weapons and military advisors during the nation’s four-and-a-half year civil war. Syria also provides the Russian Navy with its only Mediterranean naval base.

President Vladimir Putin admits that Russia is continuing to provide the Syrian military with weapons and training. He said that Russian military experts are in Syria to train its military to use weapons shipped by Russia under existing contracts.

The Russians are angry at NATO member Bulgaria for refusing to allow Russian planes to fly through its airspace en route to Syria. “The planes were said to carry humanitarian aid but we had information, that we had every reason to trust, that the declared cargo was not the real one,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Betina Zhoteva told AFP news agency. The Russian planes flew in from southern Russia through Iranian and Iraqi air space to reach Syria.

The Russians also asked Greece for permission for Russian planes to enter Greek airspace for humanitarian aid flights to Syria, Rodolfos Moronis, spokesman for Greece’s interim government, said. He added that Russia now plans to use a route east of Greek airspace for the flights.

Government spokesmen in both Greece and Bulgaria say that the U.S. has asked them to deny Russian planes the right to fly over their territory on the way to Syria. The Russians issued a public rebuke to Bulgaria for refusing to allow the flights.

For more information on how Russia is ramping up its military presence in Syria, click here.

Some U.S. intelligence analysts believe Russia is preparing to insert combat aircraft into Syria – see the report here.

By All News Center on Sep 10, 2015