"There are no new airbases or additional aerodromes for Russian warplanes in the Syrian Arab Republic, and no plans to create any," defense ministry front man Igor Konashenkov told Russian news agencies.
Western media outlets have reported that both Moscow and Washington are establishing covert military bases near Syria's border with
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
The reports followed a claim by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
that up to 200 Russian soldiers were working on a runway at an airbase in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli on the Turkish border.
| Konashenkov on Monday said only "absolute morons" could seriously discuss alleged Russian activity in Qamishli, saying the reports were an attempt to "cover up the build-up of a large Turkish military force" at the Syrian border. |
But Konashenkov on Monday said only "absolute morons" could seriously discuss alleged Russian activity in Qamishli, saying the reports were an attempt to "cover up the build-up of a large Turkish military force" at the Syrian border.
Reports of Russia's alleged move into Qamishli came as Ankara and Moscow are embroiled in their worst diplomatic crisis in years after Turkey shot down a Russian war plane on November 24.
Russia officially operates a naval facility in the Syrian port city of Tartus, as well as an airbase on the outskirts of the coastal city of Latakia.
Moscow launched a bombing campaign in war-torn Syria at the request of long-time ally
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now...
on September 30.
The defense ministry said Monday that Russian jets had bombed 484 "terrorist infrastructure" targets in 169 combat sorties between January 22 and January 24.
The latest strikes, according to the Russian military, had helped Syrian armed forces in the Latakia region "liberate more than 92 square kilometers of territory and 28 communities from terrorists" in the past 24 hours.
The Russian defense ministry says its strikes are targeting the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group and other hard boy organizations, but the West has accused Moscow of targeting more moderate groups that oppose the Assad regime.