18 sorties against 12 facilities of the Islamic State in Syria in the latest 24 hours. These are the official numbers communicated by the Russian Ministry of Defense a few minutes ago. "This night, our aircraft carried out ten missions. We destroyed seven ISIS plants and used the entire air force deployed in Syria. During the day we conducted eight sorties and destroyed five other structures." The Russians razed to the ground a command post and a communication point near Dar Cup, in the province of Aleppo, in north-western Syria.
The Sukhoi Su-25 bombed a training camp near Ma'arrat al-Nu'man, in Idlib province, completely destroying all the infrastructure: bunkers, ammunition depots and combustible materials. The Sukhoi Su-24M of the "Russian Aerospace Force Air Group in Syria" destroyed a fortified structure in the province of Hama, near Kafer-Zaita. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the concrete structure was an advanced stronghold of the ISIS with heavy equipment inside (obviously stolen from the Loyalist army).
For the first time, even the most powerful Su-34 fighter-bombers (photos) entered the scene, destroying a training camp near Maadan-Jedid and a camouflaged command post near Kasert-Faraj, south-west of the city of Raqqa . Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov added: "There is not a single target in Syria that our Sukhoi-34 cannot hit. I would like to point out that the Su-34 attack targets from an altitude higher than 5.000 meters with absolute precision ".
The al-Hmaimim base has become the main Russian outpost for all attacks conducted by the Su-34 platforms. It should be noted that the presence of fighter-bombers, despite the small number available, was kept hidden until a few hours ago. Moscow has less than 50 Su-34 in service, but in Syria it may have deployed eight to twelve.
The "Russian Aerospace Force Air Group in Syria" consists of twelve Su-24 Fencer low-altitude tactical bombers, twelve Su-25 Frogfoot ground attack and support aircraft, four Su-30SM fighters, fifteen heavy attack helicopters , many of them Kamov Ka-52 'Alligator'. The air force is supplied by ten tankers.
(photo: Sputnik)
