Syria confirms receipt of Russian jets to target Isis
Air force takes delivery of fighter planes and reconnaissance aircraft, and US officials say Moscow plans to send 2,000 personnel to airbase near Latakia
A Russian Antonov 124 cargo plane being unloaded on the tarmac of the Martyr Bassil al-Assad international airport in the government-controlled coastal city of Latakia.
Ian Black Middle East editor, and Alec Luhn in Moscow
Tuesday 22 September 2015
Syria has confirmed for the first time that it has received advanced fighter and reconnaissance aircraft from Russia, which the Damascus government says have significantly enhanced its ability to target Islamic State fighters.
The Syrian air force has “taken delivery of at least five fighter planes from Moscow, as well as reconnaissance aircraft which allow us to identify targets with great accuracy,” a senior military official told the AFP news agency on Tuesday. Russia has also sent other “sophisticated military equipment” to fight Isis.
A Syrian army officer told the Guardian separately that infantry units were now receiving more accurate satellite images of Isis positions and that airstrikes against them were thus more accurate and frequent, apparently thanks to Russian help.
US officials have reported that Russia now has 28 fighter aircraft in Syria, and plans to send 2,000 personnel to an airbase south of the coastal city of Latakia. Russia has started to fly unmanned aircraft over Syria in what appears to be surveillance operations.
There remains uncertainty, however, over how directly the Russians are prepared to get involved in the conflict.
Satellite pictures reported by IHS Janes Intelligence Review on Tuesday show the construction of two new Russian facilities north of Latakia. These “highlight how the rapid buildup of Russia’s expeditionary force in Syria is continuing apace,” it said.
On Monday, the Kommersant newspaper in Moscow quoted a soldier at the naval base in the Syrian city of Tartus as saying that the number of Russian specialists there had grown to 1,700.
Satellite view of a military base in Latakia.
Four and a half years into a war that has killed an estimated 250,000 people, the arms deliveries represent a significant development. Russia and Iran have backed President Bashar al-Assad from the start, while the US and European countries have called for his overthrow and given limited support to rebel groups, which have been eclipsed on the ground by Islamist fighters backed by the Saudis and Turkey or by Isis and Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaida’s Syrian affiliate.
The new aircraft, which arrived last Friday, have already been deployed against Isis in Deir Ezzor and Raqqa, the jihadist group’s de facto capital in north-eastern Syria. “Russian weapons are starting to have an effect in Syria,” the official said.
A Syrian army special forces officer said: “In the past two weeks there has been a noticeable increase in the accuracy and frequency of air force strikes. They actually call us now for more targets to hit. We have been receiving new intelligence, more accurate satellite and aerial imaging of Isis positions which we never got before.”
The officer added: “[The Russians] might supply the weapons, but we will be the ones fighting on the ground.”
The anti-regime Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that at least 38 Isis fighters had been killed in airstrikes on Monday. “The number of raids is growing and the strikes are more precise after the Syrian air force received arms and more efficient planes from Moscow,” said the observatory’s director Rami Abdel Rahman.
Analysts have noted that since the Russian buildup, the Syrian air force has moved from dropping barrel bombs on other rebel-held areas to attacking Isis in Raqqa and Palmyra. On Monday, however, up to 32 civilians were reported killed when Syrian government forces bombarded a rebel-held part of Aleppo.
Western and Arab governments appear confused by Moscow’s moves, having recently hoped that it would take part in diplomatic efforts to end the crisis. Britain’s defence secretary, Michael Fallon, said on Tuesday that the Russian buildup in Syria had further complicated an already complex situation. Unlike the US, the UK has had no direct talks with Russia about the deployment, he said.
Secretary of state John Kerry says the US military has assessed that the type of Russian aircraft in Syria is consistent with protecting their own forces, and calls on Russia and Iran to be helpful in ending the four-year conflict 
Saudi Arabia and its Gulf partners called the Russian move an “escalation” and said Syria had no future while Assad was in power. Foreign ministers of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council urged a political solution to the crisis “without any foreign intervention” – a clear swipe at Russia and Iran.
Western analysts say Vladimir Putin sees an opportunity to both assist the Assad regime and boost Russia’s influence in the region at the expense of the US. Further moves are likely to be set out when Putin addresses the UN general assembly in New York next week. He is due to meet the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on Wednesday.
The main significance of the Russian move is that it focuses on Isis, which is increasingly at the heart of western concerns, and portrays Assad as the essential partner in ensuring its defeat.
“Russia guesses that the conflicting objectives of all sides in the Syrian conflict – and of their international backers – will ensure that there can be no political solution for the foreseeable future,” said the Soufan Group, a US-based strategic analysis firm. “It is therefore taking advantage of this stalemate to increase the chances of Assad’s survival by inserting a significant military presence, while at the same time boosting its own influence in the broader Middle East.”
Efforts to find a negotiated solution to Syria’s war have repeatedly failed, despite the enormity of a crisis that has forced millions from their homes, many of them now seeking refuge in Europe.
Leonid Isayev, an associate professor of political science at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, said he believed Russian forces were not taking active part in the conflict
but were preparing to do so if Damascus came under threat. Isayev toured government-controlled areas of Syria last week.
“Rumours that Russian soldiers are going to fight on the side of Assad are exaggerated,” Isayev told the Guardian. “I don’t disagree that Russian specialists are arriving in Syria, our equipment and weapons are being delivered, that’s a fact.
We are modernising the base in Latakia, we are modernising the port in Tartus, and that’s being done to prevent the fall of Damascus because rebels are already in the outskirts and there’s a risk of attack.”
Additional reporting by Ala’a Ebrahim
