I assumed this report of an Israeli attack on a Russian air base in Syria had to be some sort of war-porn fiction.
ISRAEL is reportedly hitting “terrorist targets in western Syria and along the Syria coastline.”
So far they’ve hit in Latakia and Tartus, home ports of the Russian Mediterranean Flotilla.
Also the Russian Hmeimim Air Base.
The Russian ammo stockpile there is exploding.
Russian air defenses are reportedly firing at Israeli aircraft.
The strikes occurred an hour after the arrival of an Iranian plane belonging to “Qashim Fars” airline.
The source of the bombing is not yet confirmed, but it reportedly involved 30 missiles fired from naval battleships between 3:55 and 4:41 AM.
However, the mainstream reports do at least confirm that the IDF attacked a weapons depot “near” the Russian air base.
Israeli conducted strikes near the Syrian coast this morning, with explosions reported in the vicinity of the Russian-operated Khmeimim Air Base, near the city of Latakia. At this stage, it’s not clear if the Russian airfield was actually hit, deliberately or otherwise — which would be a first. Either way, however, the attacks represent a notable escalation in terms of Israel’s willingness to prosecute targets that are very close to this key Russian military facility in Syria and a major point of pride for Moscow.
Initial accounts from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a U.K.-based information office, describe attacks in the coastal Latakia province, with targets including an ammunition warehouse said to be near Jablah city, not far from Khmeimim Air Base. Weapons supplied by Iran and destined for Hezbollah, its Lebanese ally and proxy, often are delivered first to Syria, for onward transit to Lebanon. The suggestion here is that Iranian munitions headed for the militant group were targeted soon after they arrived in Syria.
So, it’s unclear. And while Russia Today doesn’t have anything about the attack – or near-attack – this announcement today may be related.
The Russian ambassador to Israel, Anatoly Viktorov, has urged Russian citizens to leave the Jewish state in view of the increasing tensions in the region.
They may have invented the word, but I find it very, very difficult to imagine that the Israelis would be so full of chutzpah that they would choose to go hot with the Russians. Even the US neocons have had more sense than to push for that. I mean, I don’t see how the IDF can even hope to handle the Iranians with or without the US military.
I sincerely hope this is an exaggeration, if not a complete fabrication.
UPDATE: It was an exaggeration. But it was pretty close, being only 1.5 kilometers away from the base.
Reports of the Russian Hmeimim Military Base being hit by an Israeli airstrike are false. We have geolocated the video and photo. The photo was taken from the second or third floor of ‘al-Salom Gym’, 35.3721083, 35.9250677, Jableh, Syria. The most likely areas of target are shown on the map as “1” and “2” – although the Russian base (shown on the map) is approximately 1,500 meters away from either target site.