Russian involvement in Syrian crisis

[Yumdoot]

There is a possible report of some 40+ Collation soldiers died in a Houthi Scud attack, majority of them was from UAE

There is no words of Saudi Air Chief also killed in the attack

Even I don't know but
http://osnetdaily.com/2015/06/exposed-saudi-airforce-chief-killed-in-houthi-scud-attack/

The Saudi Air Force Commander Lt. Gen. Muhammad bin Ahmed Al-Shaalan was killed in a Scud missile cross-border attack by Yemeni Houthi rebels on the big King Khalid Air Base at Khamis Mushayt in the southwestern Asir region of Saudi Arabia, debkafile reports. The attack took place on June 6, but his death was concealed under a blanket of secrecy until Wednesday, June 10.

Seems like old news that I missed and involved some manipulation:

http://www.arabnews.com/featured/news/761711

Royal tribute to air force chief

MOURNING: Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman takes part in the funeral prayers for Saudi Royal Air Force commander Lt. Gen. Mohammed bin Ahmed Al-Shaalan. (SPA)

ARAB NEWS
Published — Sunday 14 June 2015
Last update 14 June 2015 4:20 pm

RIYADH: Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, second deputy premier and minister of defense, led those who received the body of Lt. Gen. Mohammed bin Ahmed Al-Shaalan, commander of the Saudi Royal Air Force, at Riyadh Air Base Airport on Saturday.

The deputy crown prince conveyed condolences of Saudi leaders to the family of Lt. Gen. Al-Shalaan, who died following a heart attack during a business trip outside the Kingdom.

 

[pmaitra]

.

well yeah ..go Rafale hunt those Islamic Ba$tards


earlier @pmaitra said Syria already has S 300

Lets see what the Syrian air defense do against the mighty Rafale

Firstly, understand what "reconnaissance" means.
Secondly, yes, I believe reports that Syria has S-300. Glad you are happy that that Israeli F-16 was fried, if true.

 

[SajeevJino]

The whole IS drama and Assad is basically looks like US Vs Russia.

US wants to uproot Assad regime and Russian influence through taliban like outfit known as IS.
Russia where as is supporting the Assad regime taking Iran under confidence.

do you know when ISIS was established ..which was their first victory.. how they grow up like a Big tree in short time

 

[SajeevJino]

Firstly, understand what "reconnaissance" means.
Secondly, yes, I believe reports that Syria has S-300. Glad you are happy that that Israeli F-16 was fried, if true.

First step before carry out Attack mission is Reconnaissance ..please wait for some more days and see what the Rafale do against the modern S 300 systems

There is no manned aircraft loses of IDF this year ...

 

[pmaitra]

First step before carry out Attack mission is Reconnaissance ..please wait for some more days and see what the Rafale do against the modern S 300 systems

There is no manned aircraft loses of IDF this year ...

Why would S-300 target a Rafale, if the Rafale is fighting against ISIS? If it tries to help ISIS, it will go down like that F-16 that got vaporized.

 

[Screambowl]

do you know when ISIS was established ..which was their first victory.. how they grow up like a Big tree in short time

more than 10 years back. But this is not that IS which it was 13 years back.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Moscow admits Russian military experts on the ground in Syria

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...-kerry-phone-call-continues-flights-to-syria/

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Giant Russian transport aircraft in Syria raise concerns

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/russian-military-buildup-flights-syria-fears/

 

[DingDong]

In my view this is a favourable development for India. Now all the puppet-masters will have to come out in open. Huge investments going down the drain again I guess?

If Russia manages to have Syria, it will ring warning bells for the Sunni block.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

http://www.worthynews.com/21646-syria-russia-revive-friendship-treaty

Syria, Russia Revive 'Friendship' Treaty
Syria, Russia Revive 'Friendship' Treaty
Wednesday, September 9, 2015 | Worthy News / World News

(Worthy News) - Arab media are reporting that the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has reactivated a 1980 "friendship" treaty between Damascus and Moscow, handing over the Latakia airbase in Assad's mostly Alawite Mediterranean coastal enclave.

Other Arab media reports say Russia is anticipating an eventual partition of Syria and hopes to bolster the military of a smaller geographic configuration of Syria under Assad.

The London-based, Saudi-owned Arab daily Al Hayat reported Monday that Syria and Russia agreed to reactivate a 1980 “friendship and cooperation” treaty between the old Soviet Union and Syria, after numerous visits by Syrian and Russian officials to each other's capitals.

The paper said Russian forces have taken over the Latakia airbase and were working to improve runways and equipment at other bases in the north of the country. [ Source ]

 

[LETHALFORCE]

http://www.breitbart.com/big-govern...house-worried-russia-escalating-war-in-syria/

WHITE HOUSE WORRIED RUSSIA ESCALATING WAR IN SYRIA

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Russia eludes US ban on NATO airspace by roundabout route to Syria via Iraq and Iran
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report September 9, 2015, 1:47 PM (GMT+02:00)

Moscow opened a new route for flying military shipments from Sevastopol in Crimea and other South Russian bases to Syria,debkafile discloses. To circumvent US efforts to block the airspace of NATO nations, Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria, along the Mediterranean route, the Russian is senidng military transports over the Caspian Sea, northern Iran and Iraq, to reach Mezze airbase in Damascus and supply the new Russian base at Jablah.The White House warned Tuesday night, Sept. 8: “Russian military buildup would risk confrontation with the counter-ISIL coalition that included the US.”

 

[SajeevJino]

.

well more Salts

Russia declares a danger area for missile firings off Syrian coast until 17 September

.........................

 

[Samar Rathi]

 

[Samar Rathi]

Are there Russian troops in Syria?

Recently information has been spreading through blogs and media on Russian troops being moved to Syria with an intent to take part in the fighting.

We tried to investigate the information, verify, confirm or refute the assumptions and find new facts. Here's what we got.



The information on "Putin moving troops to Syria!" became widespread after a recent video from Syria, shot presumably on August 23 during fighting to the north of Latakia, Syria's main port city.

Two things were pointed out in this post. Firstly, a BTR-82А APCRU with a 30-mm 2А72 cannonRU — a rare sight even in Russian military units.

(timestamps 0:40 — 0:44, 02:15 — 02:21 in the video above)

The APC has camo painting and a number 111:

(timestamps 01:15 — 01:20 in the video above)

Secondly, many heard people speaking in Russian at 02:04 — 02:15 in the video above. We cut out the speech fragment and tried to increase the volume and reduce the noise:

https://soundcloud.com/russiansound-217754771/converted-latakia

 

[Samar Rathi]

Concerning BTR-82A


Russia does not deny supplying military vehicles to Syria. Specifically, at least thirty BTR-80 APCs were supplied to SyriaRU from December 2013 to March 2014.

But, firstly, this is an older model radically different from BTR-82A, secondly, BTR-80 photos from Syria show them having the simplest factory paint jobs, thridly, these photos show that Syrian government troops do not put numbers on vehicles supplied to them. We double-checked this and saw that if Assad troops do put numbers on their vehicles, the numbers are painted differently.


photo taken from milinme.wordpress.com


After every "[give them] more!" shout we can clearly hear double shots, probably made by someone following those orders. We asked our readers to listen to these shots and suggest what weapon they could be coming from. Everyone unanimously came to a conclusion we share as well: we hear the shots of a 30-mm 2A72 cannon installed on a "BTR-82A" APC. As a reference example you can listen to a video from Russian Defense Ministry TV channel "Zvezda". At timestamp 1:59—2:07 you can hear identical shots from a BTR-82A's 2A72 cannon:

We conclude that the shouts we hear on the video are related not to the armed men behind the half-ruined wall but to the BTR-82A: we hear orders to the APC's gunner who is shooting his cannon.

Summing up: in the video we see a quite rare "BTR-82A" APC with color scheme and number characteristic of Russian military units. Moreover, this APC has a Russian-speaking crew.

Footage location


The video's title describes it as fighting close to Latakia. It also says it was shot on August 23. On that day, an independent organization "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights" (SOHR) published dispatches confirming fighting close to Latakia:

Other SOHR dispatches on fighting close to Latakia on August 23:
• http://www.syriahr.com/en/2015/08/c...bel-battalion-target-the-countryside-of-hama/
• http://www.syriahr.com/en/2015/08/violent-clashes-continue-in-lattakia-countryside/
• http://www.syriahr.com/en/2015/08/t...kias-mountains-and-shells-target-the-capital/

To understand the situation in the region we can refer to a current situation map.

[link to map), which at the same time is a military airbase (marked with a fighter jet icon on the map).

Should Assad lose Latakia, he'd soon lose that airbase, and from there it's quite a short road to Tartus.

 

[Samar Rathi]

Russian jets in Syria's skies?


Several days later, on September 2, photos appeared on social networks allegedly showing Russian fighter jets and an UAV flying over western Idlib. The authors noted that the photos were posted by an account associated with Jabhaat al Nusra (Al Qaeda's Syrian "franchise", grey circles on the situation map). The author did not specify what was meant by "Western Idlib". The city of Idlib is the capital of Idlib Governorate (region).

In the first photo we see what looks like a Russian recon UAV Pchela-1TRU (or its visually identical predecessor, Shmel-1RU):

Comparing to existing Pchela-1T photos, we can confirm it is indeed seen in the Jabhaat al Nusra photo:

(source video)

According to the UAV's manufacturer's official specificationRU, its radius is 60 km. If we draw a 60km radius circle from the center of Idlib (city) , none of government-controlled airbases would fall into that radius: circle map tool link or screenshot
[

Given that Pchela-1T requires a bulky launch vehicle (on a tracked or truck chassis), it would seem logical to launch the UAV right from that airbase. Moreover, Russia has previously used that airbase to unload both humanitarian supplies (video) and military cargo: Reuters sources told in January 2014of delivering Russian military hardware including UAVs to the Latakia airbase.

Together with the Pchela photo, images of three fighter jets were published. The images' quality is too poor to conclusively identify the fighter jet's model. The images show only jet wing silhouettes, which are almost identical for several different models. Nevertheless, below we show the three images published with suggestions (not ours, but spread through blogs and media) on the jets' models as well as examples of close-up images of these fighters.

Presumably a Sukhoi Su-34 (Fullback):

[Close-up example of a Sukhoi Su-34]

Presumably a Mikoyan MiG-29 (Fulcrum):

[Close-up example of a MiG-29]

Presumably a Sukhoi Su-27 (Flanker):
http://i.imgur.com/54ltieW.jpg

[Close-up example of a Sukhoi Su-27]

We repeat that the images' quality makes it impossible to conclusively identify the models. All the three jets shot could be MiG-29s operated by Syria's Air Force. Here's an image example which shows how similar the three fighter jets are:
[Fighter jet comparison]

However, all the jets were photographed together with a Pchela-1T UAV.

Summing up: The Syrian government is losing territory. Its enemies captured Idlib and Jisr al-Shughur in Spring, coming close to strategically important Latakia. Latakia is Syria's largest port. Near Latakia there's an air base where Russian humanitarian aid and military cargo has been unloaded. In August, a video of fighting near Latakia shows a Russian "BTR-82A" APC, obviously shipped to Syria not from the factory but from a Russian military unit (see color scheme and number). What's even more interesting, the APC has a Russian speaking crew. Several days later, in the skies over Idlib governorate (bordering Latakia governorate) a Russian Pchela-1T UAV is spotted. Simultaneously, three unknown fighter jets are spotted in the same area, their silhouettes resembling MiG-29 / Su-34 / Su-27. The area where "Pchela-1T" was spotted and the UAV's radius prove this UAV could have been launched from the Latakia airbase.

 

[Samar Rathi]

Are Russian troops in Syria?


To the south of Latakia lays the port city of Tartus. Since 1971 Russia has had a naval base in Tartus. Actually, not quite. This is not a base, but a "Russia's Navy Forces sustainment center #720". The difference lies not only in the name. This depot has always been used only for ship repairs and resupply with fuel, water and other consumables. Tartus has never been an actual base, i.e. an installation with continued Russian troops and hardware presence. Another fact showing just how small this installation is: until recently, it was manned by a staff of 4 (four) Russian military seamen. This last number is especially important in the context of the photos we will show below.

In 2010 talks circulated of modernizing the depot and turning it into a bona fide naval base, but in 2011 Arab Spring and the Syrian civil war happened, radically changing the plans. Recently many pro-Kremlin commenters have said that we've had lots of troops there helping the Syrian government. Actually, this is not true. Since the start of the Arab Spring, Kremlin became a lot more cautious. In 2013 both military and civilian Russian staff was evacuated from the base, according to Russian deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mikhail Bogdanov. This was done to make sure no incidents involving Russian personnel would happen during the Syrian civil war. Moreover, Mikhail Bogdanov stressed that the Tartus depot had no strategic or military importance. The Russian advisors and instructors (the ones pro-Kremlin blogers love bragging about) were withdrawn as well.

Why did the strategy turn around. why did Tartus become strategically important and why did out troops re-enter it (as we show in the post below), risking "incidents with Russian troops"? We believe the reason was realization that Syrian government can't stand on its own and will soon lose both Latakia and the airbase close to it, and then Tartus.

On August 26 media told that a Russian delegation arrived to Tartus to meet Syrian army representatives and agree on technological cooperation including providing satellite imagery. This indirectly confirms that the Pchela-1T UAV was identified correctly and used by Russian operators. A satellite (if it's not geostationary) can't take a picture of a required location at any moment and immediately transmit it, and the changing situation on the ground requires frequent and readily available images. The obvious way out is using UAVs. Below we will also prove that Russian military vessels did arrive to Tartus on August 26.
http://ruslanleviev.livejournal.com/38649.html

 

[pmaitra]

Russia eludes US ban on NATO airspace by roundabout route to Syria via Iraq and Iran
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report September 9, 2015, 1:47 PM (GMT+02:00)

Moscow opened a new route for flying military shipments from Sevastopol in Crimea and other South Russian bases to Syria,debkafile discloses. To circumvent US efforts to block the airspace of NATO nations, Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria, along the Mediterranean route, the Russian is senidng military transports over the Caspian Sea, northern Iran and Iraq, to reach Mezze airbase in Damascus and supply the new Russian base at Jablah.The White House warned Tuesday night, Sept. 8: “Russian military buildup would risk confrontation with the counter-ISIL coalition that included the US.”

I would take this with a pinch of salt.

Sebastopol is in Crimea, and it does not make sense for Russia to transport anything from Sebastopol via air or via sea.

Why not by air?
Crimea is not well connected with the Russian mainland. To move equipment from the mainland to Crimea, and then from Crimea to Syria sounds like an absurd plan. DebkaFile assumes this to be a logical way, while in reality, it is a logistical hindrance. Russia would rather start its flights from somewhere in the Southern Military district (marked in brown), but not from Crimea, which was recently included inn the Southern Military district (marked in brown).

Spoiler: Military Districts of the Russian Federation

Why not by sea?
Sending anything by sea would have the Russian ships sets sail with cargo from Novorossyisk, and not from Crimea, because, again, Novorossyisk is in the Russian mainland. It is also connected by rail to the major population and industrial centres in Russia.

Spoiler: Novorossyisk

Probable route
Finally, it would have been quicker if flight were happening over Turkey. It was reported Russia persuaded the US to remove its Patriot batteries from Turkey, but I think Russia is playing it safe by avoiding Turkey altogether.

Logically thinking, it is easy to speculate that such flights are originating in Astrakhan, going over the Caspian Sea, flying over Iran, and a part of Iraq that is outside the control of Iraq (Kurdistan), and thereafter, into Syria.

This is not the shortest route, but a better route than shipping equipment into Crimea and then forwarding that to Syria.

Spoiler: Russia's gateway to the Middle East

 

[pmaitra]

[Embedded commentary in red.]

Russians: We’re Not Using the Bulgaria Route to Syria Anyway

• Bulgaria has announced it has closed its airspace to Russian Emergency Ministry flights to Syria
• Russians are saying this is bad for relations, but claim they’re only flying to Syria via Turkey anyway

(TASS - Russian news agency) | Russia Insider

Ilyushin-76

MOSCOW, September 8 (TASS) - Bulgaria’s decision to close its airspace for Russian planes carrying humanitarian aid for Syria does not matter much since Russia mostly uses other routes, Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee deputy chairman Vladimir Dzhabarov told TASS on Tuesday.

Since most Russian planes fly to Syria over the Caucasus and Iran, the closed airspace over Bulgaria and Greece will not have a significant meaning for Russia, he noted. “In general, yesterday’s statement on Greece arose a kind of a smile because everyone knows that Russian planes have been bypassing Ukraine, so that is why it is impossible to fly over Greece on any occasion. Planes heading for the Middle East follow the route Moscow-Transcaucasia-Turkey-Iran, and you cannot get there through Greece,” Dzhabarov said. [Geographical ignorance or deliberate prevarication of those making a lot of noise about Bulgaria closing its air-space? Also, Turkey is a NATO member who is allowing, so there is no NATO ban, jut a little tail wagging by a US vassal in Bulgaria.]

The official dismissed allegations made by Western countries that Russia may send military cargoes to Syria under the guise of humanitarian aid. “They are humanitarian cargoes,” he stressed.

Dzharabov said it is regrettable that the United States made efforts to prevent Russian planes with humanitarian aid for Syria from flying over the Balkans. “It is better to provide assistance at the spot so that people stay there than to create migration problems for Europe,” he said. “The fact that Bulgaria was the first to respond [to US request] will be on their conscience,” he noted. [Russia is doing its job highlighting how US policies hurt Europe.]

Sofia’s decision to close its airspace for Russian cargo planes with humanitarian aid for Syria undermined Russian-Bulgarian relations, State Duma’s Committee on International Affairs first deputy chairman Leonid Kalashnikov said on Tuesday.

“From the point of view of bilateral relations, this decision is just outrageous. It is not even about reciprocal measures that Russia will in any case take against Bulgaria. It will undermine our future relations whenever they improve,” Kalashnikov said.

Sofia’s decision represents “fulfillment of master’s demands by a vassal,” he said. “The United States is probably trying to close the airspace for us to fly to the Middle East. Someone stands their ground, like Greece, and such weaklings as Bulgaria, whom we defended against Turkish invaders some time ago, do not remember any good,” he added.
_________________________________________________________________________

Commentary: So, I was wrong about not going over Turkey as I had assumed there was a NATO ban. Looks like Turkey is allowing Russian flights. So, Russian military is flying over NATO and deploying in Syria.

_________________________________________________________________________
Some comments on the article:


Cuchulain • 2 days ago
In no time at all we'll hear that Canada has announced it has closed its airspace to Russian Emergency Ministry flights to Syria.

Ver Ami Cuchulain • 2 days ago
And Australia.​

Scan • a day ago
I'm worried about the position of Finland and Norway on the subject. They will allow Russian flights to Syria on their territories?
When people say that Americans can not find their own country on the map, we think it's a joke ...

American Graffiti Scan • a day ago
Those countries are reserved for missile interceptors targeting Cuba.​