Smokescreen blocks spy satellites over Syria

A MYSTERIOUS smokescreen was deployed over the Russian port of Tartus in Syria this week, blocking the view of spy satellites.

Satellite imagery firm Maxar Technologies took the pictures of the port on Tuesday, showing plumes of white smoke rising from along the port’s breakwater and along its wharves.

The pictures were taken a day after reports of Israeli air strikes around Tartus but analysts speculated that the smokescreen may have been an attempt to prevent aerial surveillance of the port. The port has been a vital supply point for Russian forces since 2015 when the Kremlin intervened in Syria to prop up the regime of Bashar al-assad in his civil war against rebels.

That has made Tartus a target of spy satellites and manned and unmanned intelligence, and reconnaissance aircraft.

Regular arrivals of roll-on roll-off freighters and other cargo ships resupply Russian forces and provide material to prop up Syrian government forces, according to analysts writing for The War Zone, a defence section of thedrive.com.

In 2018, Russian cargo ships unloaded heavy cargo at Tartus under cover of a smokescreen, with Syrian pro-regime sources suggesting that the smoke may have been intended to obscure the delivery of an S-300 surface-to-air missile system.

Monday’s smokescreen may have also been deployed as a training exercise at a facility that is of increasing importance to the Kremlin.

Tartus allows the Kremlin’s warships to refuel and replenish supplies without returning to their Black Sea bases via the Bosphorus.