South Front
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Warplanes of the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) have reportedly carried out a series of airstrikes against a militant stronghold located near the United States-led coalition garrison in the southeastern Syrian area of al-Tanf.
Video footage showing the airstrikes surfaced online on July 10. However, it is still unclear when exactly the airstrikes took place.
The militants who were based at the targeted stronghold were reportedly a part of sabotage groups which were trained and equipped by the U.S.-led coalition.
Around 200 U.S. troops are usually deployed at al-Tanf, along with hundreds of militants from a proxy group known as the Syrian Free Army. The coalition maintains a 55-kilometer no-fly zone around al-Tanf. Despite this, Russian fighter jets conduct armed patrols over the garrison on a regular basis.
On July 7, a video showing recent Russian airstrikes on tunnels and underground positions of U.S.-backed militants near al-Tanf surfaced online.
Just like its deployment in Syria’s northeastern region, the U.S.-led coalition presence in al-Tanf is not sanctioned by Damascus.
The U.S.-led coalition claims that it is present in al-Tanf to counter ISIS. However, the real purpose of the garrison is to block a strategic highway that links Damascus with the Iraqi capital, Baghdada. In addition, the garrison is reportedly being used as an outpost to collect intelligence, stage sabotage acts and facilitate Israeli strikes against Syria.
Damascus and its allies have been growing frustrated with the U.S. military presence in al-Tanf. During a visit to Moscow in March, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned that the coalition has turned the garrison into what he called “a bastion for terrorists.”
In May, Sergey Naryshkin, director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, accused the U.S. of training ISIS terrorists in the garrison on sabotage.
“According to our information, the U.S. al-Tanf military base located on the border of Syria, Jordan and Iraq is used to train ISIS militants for carrying out subversive acts; moreover, not only on Syrian territory but also in Russian regions,” the intelligence chief said at an international meeting of high-level security representatives, according to TASS.
Later in June, Alexander Lavrentiev, the Russian president’s special envoy for Syria, said that the coalition was strengthening its military contingent in al-Tanf and other parts of Syria. Since then, tensions have been mounting around the garrison.
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