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Syria said to move jets to base used by Russia, fearing US strikes
[IsraelTimes] Washington officials say tactical move an effort by Damascus to safeguard its remaining aircraft from American missiles.Syria has reportedly placed the majority of its warplanes under Russian protection out of fears US will conduct additional US defense officials told media outlets on Thursday that nearly all of Syria’s operational fixed-wing aircraft were now stationed at Hmeimim Air Base, just south of the port city of Latakia. Hmeimim is a Syrian airbase but has been exclusively operated by Russian forces since Moscow intervened in the bloody civil war to fight alongside Bashir al-Assad’s regime in mid-2015. According to CNN, Russian forces have deployed anti-aircraft defense systems at Hmeimim as a protective measure. US officials said the move was a likely effort to protect Syria’s remaining operational planes from a repeat of the April 7 US missile strike in response to a deadly chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held town that has been widely blamed on the Damascus regime. US Defense Secretary James Mattis at the time said the US cruise missile strike destroyed over 20 Syrian warplanes, some 20 percent of the regime’s working aircraft. Last week Mattis reiterated warnings that further chemical weapons use by Assad will be met with fresh US action. "If they use chemical weapons, they are going to pay a very, very stiff price," he said at the Pentagon last week. On Wednesday, an Israeli defense official said Assad still possesses up to three tons of chemical weapons and said the US strike was not a turning point in the war "but rather another development in the fighting." The official also said Israeli intelligence indicated Assad personally approved the chemical attack. "It’s hard for me to believe that he didn’t know about it," the officer said. Russia -- which along with Iran has deployed forces to help Assad in the six-year-old civil war -- reacted with fury to the US strike and has continued to cast doubt on the regime’s involvement in the chemical attack, to Washington’s disgust. Though Washington had informed Russian forces in Syria of the retaliatory strike in advance to avoid casualties that could prompt a broader crisis, it has accused Moscow of waging a misinformation campaign surrounding the attack for defending Assad. Earlier this week, Assad’s former chemical weapons research chief told Britannia’s The Telegraph newspaper that Syria had "at least 2,000 tons" of chemical weapons before the war and only declared 1,300. Former Brig. Gen. Zaher al-Sakat said the Syrian government still possessed hundreds of tons of chemical weapons Posted by: trailing wife 2017-04-21 |
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