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On July 19, a series of blasts rocked the city of Jableh which is located just three kilometers to the south from Russia’s Hmeimim Air Base on the Syrian coast.
Syrian state TV said that the blasts were the result of a military exercise. However, activists in Jableh alleged that several armed drones that attempted to attack Hmeimim Air Base were intercepted by Syrian and Russian air defenses over the city.
Photos that surfaced online showed small fires and damaged properties in Jableh. There were also reports of injuries among civilians.
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Hmeimim Air Base, the headquarters of the Russian military group in Syria, is protected by a multi-layered air defense network. Several S-400, Pantsir-S and Tor air-defense systems are known to be deployed at the air base.
Since 2018, the base has been attacked with armed drones on several occasions. All previous attacks were launched from the northwestern Syrian region of Greater Idlib, which is ruled by al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and other terrorist groups.
Last year, the Russian Ministry of Defenses warned of several plots by terrorist groups in Greater Idlib to attack Hmeimim with drones from Greater Idlib. In addition, a United States intelligence document that was leaked earlier this year exposed a plot by the Ukrainian secret service to attack the base with drones in cooperation with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria’s northeastern region.
The reports of a new attack on the base came amid high tensions between Russian and U.S. forces in Syria. If confirmed, the attack attempt will provoke a fierce response from the Russian military group in the country.
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