File image.
A loud blast rocked the coastal Syrian city of Tartus on March 16 with Syrian media reporting the interception of a drone over the port which hosts a base of the Russian Navy.
Some reports said that the anti-aircraft missile that brought down the drone was fired from an air defense system deployed within the Russian naval base, while other reports suggested that the interception was carried out by one of the Russian warships situated off the shores of the city.
The incident came amid rising tensions on the Syrian coast. Earlier this month, the Syrian interim government, which is led by Islamists factions, unleashed a deadly crackdown on the coast. Nearly 1,500 civilians, mainly Chirstans and Alawites, were killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which reported some 50 separate massacres.
The killings displaced tens of thousands of civilians, including at least 8,000 who took shelter at Russia’s Khmeimim Air Base near the coastal city of Jableh.
Since the fall of the Assad regime last December, the forces of the interim government have been guarding Russian bases on the coast.
On February 18, an attack targeted government checkpoints around Khmeimim with Russian forces engaging several drones with anti-aircraft guns at the same time.
It’s worth noting that Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, SVR, warned after the fall of the Assad regime that the United States and British intelligence services were preparing “terrorist acts” against Russian military bases in Syria.
“British intelligence services are developing plans to organise a series of terrorist attacks on Russian military facilities in Syria. The role of perpetrators is assigned to militants of the terrorist group ISIS,” the intelligence service said in a press release at the time, noting that the militants might use drones in the attacks.
“Washington and London assume that under such conditions they will be able to more quickly achieve their own geopolitical goal – to ensure their long-term dominance in the region based on the odious concept of a ‘rules-based order’. This, however, is hampered by Russia’s military presence on the Mediterranean coast of Syria, which still serves as a significant factor in regional stability,” the release added.
Despite the complexity of the situation, recent reports suggest that Russia was nearing a deal with the Syrian interim government to maintain a reduced military presence on the country’s coast, including the Khmeimim Air Base and the naval base at Tartus port.
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