A Russian Defence Ministry supply, the deputy head of the ministry’s Heart for Reconciliation in Syria Oleg Yegorov, reported on November 4 that jihadist militants in Syria are planning a strike on Khmeimim Air Base, Russia’s prime abroad navy facility, utilizing lengthy vary drones. “In response to info acquired… militants from the Jabhat Al Nusra and the Turkistan Islamic Celebration are planning an assault on the Khmeimim Air Base utilizing strike UAVs and kamikaze drones,” he reported. Yegorov elaborated that numerous drones had already been assembled for the assault in Syria’s Idlib governate within the nation’s northwest which straddles the Turkish border. The territory stays the first stronghold of jihadist components in Syria, and has been preserved solely resulting from very intensive Turkish materials assist and direct navy intervention on behalf of terrorist components based mostly there. U.S. envoy to the coalition combating the Islamic State, Brett H. McGurk, beforehand highlighted that “Idlib Province is the most important Al Qaeda secure haven since 9/11,” with a previous Syrian and Russian effort to reclaim the territory thwarted in early 2020 by a large Turkish intervention together with capturing down Syrian plane deep inside the nation’s borders. Because of this the territory has remained a staging floor for jihadist assaults into the remainder of Syrian territory.
Al Nusra has been a key recipient of Turkish assist since 2011 when it established itself because the Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, and was previously an affiliate of the Islamic State terror group. The Turkistan Islamic Celebration, in the meantime, has benefited from intensive assist from Turkish intelligence companies and is comprised primarily of radicalised members of the Uyghur minority in Western China. It has been accountable not just for a lot of the combating on the bottom towards Syrian forces, but in addition for terror assaults throughout Asia from Beijing to Bangkok. An operation by the 2 teams to strike Khmeimim Air Base has the potential to profit not solely Turkey and its proxies in Idlib, but in addition the NATO alliance extra broadly as a result of facility’s significance to Russia’s means to mission energy past Europe.
Though Khmeimim Airbase was established in August 2015 as a ahead working place primarily for tactical fight aviation to assist counterinsurgency operations in Syria, the ability has since been expanded to host Tu-22M3 strategic bombers and MiG-31K strike fighters armed with hypersonic weapons. Deployed close to Syria’s western coast, the plane depart NATO’s much less effectively defended southern flank uncovered whereas inserting NATO floor ships throughout the Mediterranean within the line of fireplace. A profitable assault by terror teams to take out Khmeimim Airbase, virtually actually with Ankara’s data and assist, would thus cripple a key Russian asset at a crucial time of excessive tensions between Moscow and NATO.
