Russian bombers use Iranian base to attack Syrian militants

Russian Federation said Tuesday a group of its warplanes took off from an airbase in Iran to carry out airstrikes against militants in Syria.

The outcome is that Russia’s armed forces are present in two Middle Eastern countries, whereas they previously possessed nothing in the region but a small naval base in Syria.

The announcement suggests cooperation on the highest levels between Moscow and Tehran, and comes a day after Russia’s Defense Minister said Moscow and Washington were edging closer to an agreement on Syria that would help defuse the situation in the besieged northern city of Aleppo. “They did not impact coalition operations in either Iraq or Syria during the time”.

Iran had already opened its airspace to Russian fighters as well as missiles fired from its Caspian Sea flotilla in October 2015, when four Russian warships launched a total of 26 Kalibr cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea, training on target in Syria. Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has held several meetings over the past year with Iranian counterpart General Hossein Dehghan, most recently in June in Tehran, where they pledged to deliver a “decisive” battle against “all terrorist groups”.

The Russians are using the Iranian base as a “symbolic gesture” to demonstrate to the US that they’re “carrying out their plans militarily”, Rashad al-Kattan, a political and security risk analyst who’s a fellow at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, said from London.

The Russian move provides a psychological boost for the Assad-Iran-Hezbollah alliance, illustrating that Russia is strategically committed to stay on course in Syria.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees say Tuesday’s strike hit a bakery in a neighborhood held by the Islamic State group. It said a Russian Il-76 “Candid” transport plane also landed there around the same time before both took off, suggesting the Su-34 may have suffered a mechanical issue. Moscow has been flying smaller planes out of a base in Syria, but its runways aren’t long enough for the bombers. But the development does allow Russian bombers to carry more weapons, because they don’t have to carry as much fuel for the shorter flights, roughly half the distance as those flown from Russian soil.

The report described the air base as “ideal for providing covert ground support to Russian combat missions”.

Moscow and Tehran have been expanding their ties in recent months after most of the sanctions against Iran were lifted following the nuclear deal with world powers.

Russia’s defense ministry said the strikes targeted Islamic State fighters as well as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, in Aleppo, Deir el-Zour and Idlib.

Iran’s constitution, ratified after its 1979 Islamic Revolution, bans the establishment of any foreign military base in the country. However, nothing bars Iranian officials from allowing foreign countries to use an airfield.