Russia warplane delivery hints at shift in Syria conflict

RUSSIA has delivered new arms including warplanes to Syria as the regime increases attacks on jihadists, officials said yesterday, in a sign that Moscow’s growing support for its ally is having an effect.

A senior Syrian military official said Damascus had received a fresh batch of arms including at least five fighter planes, while a monitoring group said there had been a marked increase in regime attacks on the Islamic State (IS) group.

The deliveries came amid a rapid Russian military build-up in Syria, with US officials saying Moscow had deployed 28 new combat planes and begun drone flights in the country.

This has given a new dimension to the devastating four-year conflict, raising deep concerns in the US.

The military official said the fighter planes had arrived on Friday along with reconnaissance aircraft at a military base in Latakia province, the traditional heartland of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The regime had also received “sophisticated military equipment to fight IS” including targeting equipment and precision-guided missiles, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

On Monday, US officials said Moscow had deployed 28 fighter and bomber aircraft at the airfield, including 12 SU-24 attack aircraft, 12 SU-25 ground attack aircraft and four Flanker fighter jets.

They said there were also about 20 Russian combat and transport helicopters at the base and that Moscow was operating drone flights, but did not give details.

The new weapons had already been deployed against IS in the cities of Deir Ezzor and Raqa, the jihadist group’s de facto capital in Syria, said the Syrian military official.

“Russian weapons are starting to have an effect in Syria.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said at least 38 IS fighters were killed in air strikes in jihadist-held towns in central Syria on Monday.

“The number of raids is growing and the strikes are more precise,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Those strikes hit the town of Palmyra, where IS had destroyed a series of ancient ruins and two other towns in Homs province.

Experts said it was unlikely the aircraft were only for defensive purposes. “They are not going to sit around and defend the airfield or maybe even the province of Latakia,” said Jeffrey White of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

“This kind of aircraft suggests that the Russians intend to exert their combat power outside of Latakia in an offensive role.”

The deployments have raised fears of an inadvertent confrontation between Russian forces and the USled coalition that has been carrying out almost daily air strikes against IS in Syria for more than a year.

Russia has been an unwavering supporter of Mr Assad during a conflict that has killed more than 240,000 since March 2011.

After an 18-month freeze in military relations triggered by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation anger over Moscow’s role in the Ukraine crisis, US and Russian military officials held talks on Friday aimed at avoiding unintended incidents in Syria. In another potential sign of an increasing Russian role, President Vladimir Putin agreed to a deal with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday aimed at avoiding incidents in Syria.

A “joint mechanism for preventing misunderstandings between our forces” was agreed to, Mr Netanyahu’s office said.

Israeli forces have reportedly carried out several strikes in Syria on Iranian arms transfers to Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah.

This suggests that the Russians intend to exert their combat power outside of Latakia in an offensive role