Inside Putin's Syrian airbase from where Russian jets are pounding ISIS

29.05.2020 09:35

From bread ovens and saunas to a quirky take on Crocs footwear and ageing fighter jets, these images go behind the scenes at the Syrian airbase being used by Russia to blitz the Islamic State.

Moscow has at least 32 warplanes deployed at Latakia including bombers, ground-attack craft and fighters.

Around 500 marine infantry troops are also stationed there to protect the facility and service the aircraft.

Including pilots, air crews and support workers, about 2,000 personnel are thought to be in the conflict zone protecting dictator President Bashar Al-Assad's faltering regime with dozens of bombing raids on rebel and ISIS targets.

Special correspondents Alexander Kots and Dmitry Steshin were given rare access to the base for Russian daily newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Embedding with pilots, meteorologists, engineers, anti-aircraft defence soldiers and kitchen staff, they captured life on the frontline and the spartan facilities they are having to cope with.

The images have emerged as a Russian Defence Ministry official has revealed the country's air force made more than 20 flights over Syria in the last 24 hours, targeting nine ISIS positions.

Igor Konashenkov said Su-34 and Su-24M aircraft took part in the strikes on Friday and Saturday.

Meanwhile, a Syrian military official said Russian warplanes attacked the terror group in central and northern Syria in the early hours of Saturday with a series of 'concentrated and precise' airstrikes.

The unnamed official said the hits destroyed a command center in the central town of Latamneh and targeted positions in the northwestern areas of Jisr al-Shughour and Maaret al-Numan.

A day earlier, Russia had revealed its first airstrikes on ISIS's main Syrian stronghold had killed at least 12 members of the jihadi group.

Russian air attacks also targeted the Army of Conquest, the most powerful Islamist coalition battling Syrian regime forces in the northwest, a security source on the ground said.

The defence ministry in Moscow confirmed it had carried out strikes on Raqqa province on Thursday, as well as raids on the provinces of Aleppo in the north, Idlib in the northwest and Hama in central Syria.

The strikes were the first time Russia has targeted ISIS's stronghold in Raqqa province, the de facto Syrian capital of its self-styled 'caliphate'.

Russia's defence ministry said Su-34 planes hit 'an ISIS training camp near the village of Maadan Jadid', 45 miles east of Raqqa city, and 'a camouflaged command post at Kasrat Faraj, southwest of Raqqa'.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said those strikes had killed at least a dozen ISIS fighters.

'Last night, Russian strikes on the western edges of Raqqa city, and near the Tabqa military airport, killed 12 ISIS jihadists,' Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said on Friday.

Activists and Raqqa residents said ISIS had cancelled prayers and emptied mosques there, fearing more Russian strikes.

'The residents are very afraid, especially if the Russians are going to operate like regime planes by targeting civilians,' said activist Abu Mohammad who is from Raqqa.

(dailymail.co.uk)