Russia admits having military presence in Syria

Posted 2015-09-09 14:18 by Grunt Report

Russia’s Foreign Ministry disclosed early Wednesday that Russian military experts are assisting forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in that country’s long-running civil war.

The statement by Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova to Reuters marks the first confirmation from Moscow that members of the Russian military are on the ground in Syria after weeks of reports that Russia had stepped up its support for the embattled Assad regime.

Zakharova said the advisers were assisting with Russian arms deliveries to Syrian government forces, which Moscow says are aimed at fighting Islamist militants. The spokeswoman did not give a precise number of Russian military personnel in Syria.

The disclosure comes as U.S. officials have expressed increasing concern about the number of Russian military cargo flights to Syria. Secretary of State John Kerry called his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov over the weekend to voice “concerns” about the “imminent” buildup of Russian military forces there.

Multiple U.S. officials who have reviewed the latest intelligence in Syria told Fox News Tuesday that the U.S. military was tracking multiple flights of Russia’s largest military cargo plane, the Antonov An-124 Ruslan — better known by its NATO codename, “Condor.”

Notably, the “Condor” made one flight Tuesday morning into Latakia, a Syrian port city along the Mediterranean Sea controlled by the Assad regime and home to Russian military forces.

The flights marked the first time in months the U.S. military had seen flights of the large Russian transport planes, one official said, calling this development “very troubling.”

Last week, the Times of London reported that video shot near Latakia and shown on Syrian state TV showed Syrian government troops supported by a Russian armored vehicle. Russian-speaking voices were also heard in the background of the footage.

On Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry also accused the U.S. of “international boorishness” over Washington’s requests to Greece and Bulgaria to deny the cargo flights the use of those countries’ airspace. Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry has refused to allow Russian military aircraft to fly over its territory until Sept. 24 at the earliest. On Monday, Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman Constantinos Koutras said Athens was examining a similar request from the U.S.

In a statement released Saturday after Kerry’s call with Lavrov, the State Department warned that Russia’s continued actions could “further escalate the conflict” and “risk confrontation with the anti-ISIL Coalition operating in Syria.”

The statement appeared to mark a change in policy from last week when the Pentagon and State Department initially welcomed Russia’s increased involvement in Syria.