Assad’s missiles claim ‘most likely a bluff’

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad yesterday signalled that his government had taken delivery of some of Russia’s S-300 anti-aircraft missiles, a claim that drew scepticism from military analysts. Mr Assad made the announcement on Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV. Hezbollah is helping quell a two-year civil war that US Secretary of State John Kerry said last week has killed more than 100,000 people. “Most likely this is a bluff,” Ruslan Pukhov, head of the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in Moscow and a member of public advisory board of Russia’s defence ministry, said yesterday. Syria said it would attend talks in Geneva next month but without preconditions.