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Moscow / AFP
Russian warplanes on Tuesday flew a bombing run from an Iranian airstrip against extremist groups in war-torn Syria, the defence ministry said — the first time Moscow has reported using an Iranian air base.
The raids mark the first time that Russia has publicly stated that it has used a base in a Middle East country other than Syria since the Kremlin launched its bombing campaign in support of long-time ally Bashar Al Assad last September. “On August 16 Tu-22M3 long-range bombers and Su-34 frontline bombers, flying with a full bomb load from the Hamedan air base (Islamic Republic of Iran), conducted a group air strike against targets of the IS and Jabhat Al Nusra terrorist groups in the provinces of Aleppo, Deir Ezzor and Idlib,” the ministry said in a statement.
The strikes resulted in the destruction of “five large warehouses with weapons, ammunition and fuel” and extremist training camps near Aleppo, Deir Ezzor, the village of Saraqeb in the Idlib region and Al-Bab, an IS-held town in Aleppo province, the statement said.
The bombing also targeted three command centres near the village of Jafra and Deir Ezzor, killing “a large number of fighters”, Moscow added. Conducting its bombing raids from Iran will dramatically cut the time it takes Moscow’s long-range bombers to reach Syria. They had recently been flying from a base in southern Russia.
US cooperation?
Moscow has used warplanes stationed at its Hmeimim airbase outside the Syrian coastal city of Latakia, as well as warships stationed in the Caspian Sea and a submarine in the Mediterranean Sea to launch cruise missile attacks on Syrian territory.
An unnamed military source also told Interfax news agency that the Russian army had sent requests to Iran and Iraq to fire cruise missiles across their airspace.
Iran thwarts IS plot to
attack country
Iran killed four suspected IS group extremists near its border with Iraq, disrupting a cell that was planning attacks in the country, state media reported on Tuesday.
“The takfiri-terrorist team intended to conduct terrorist operations inside the country,” the governor of the border province of Kermanshah, Asadollah Razani, told state broadcaster IRIB.
The 10-member cell had been under surveillance by Iran’s intelligence service before the raid was launched on Monday, Razani said.
IS kills 9 Iraqis near
Jordan border
IS extremists attacked an Iraqi border guard base near Jordan on Tuesday, killing at least nine people before being beaten back,
officers said. The early morning attack involved heavy mortar fire and saw clashes between jihadists and border guards defending their position near Rutba, the last town on the desert road before the Trebil border crossing.
“Elements from the IS gangs attacked the 2nd regiment of the border guard, which is located on the highway between Rutba and Trebil,” a colonel in the border guard said.
“We clashed for several hours.”
The Joint Operations Command which coordinates Iraq’s fight against IS said nine people were killed, eight members of the border guard and a civilian.
The colonel said 17 border guards were also wounded in the attack, which occurred in the westernmost part of Anbar province, some 450 kilometres (280 miles) from Baghdad.
“Several Daesh fighters were also killed and they were forced to withdraw. The base has remained under border guard control,” the officer said.
“The 2nd regiment is under our control, they did not manage to take it, our troops fought back,” said Major General Ammar al-Kubaysi, the border guard commander.