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Syria intercepts, shoots down terrorist drones near Russian air base in Latakia

This file picture shows a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 fighter jet at the Russia-run Hmeimim air base in Syria's west coastal province of Latakia. (Photo by Sputnik news agency)

Syrian air defense forces have managed to foil an attack by foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants against the country’s strategic Hmeimim air base in the western coastal province of Latakia.

Syria’s state-run al-Ikhbariyah Syria television news network reported that an anti-aircraft defense system intercepted and brought down two unmanned aerial vehicles near the base on Monday evening.

The development came only a day after Major Geneneral Yuri Borenkov, the head of the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria, said several drones launched by Takfiri terrorists had been struck near Hmeimim air base.

“On February 1, at around 11 p.m. Moscow time (2000 GMT), air traffic control at the Russian Hmeimim base detected a multiple target made up of drones, which had been launched from the territory controlled by extremists in the de-escalation zone of Idlib. Electronic warfare systems have intercepted and neutralized the drones,” Borenkov said then.

He added that the drone attack left no one injured, and the base continued to operate as normal.

Back on January 19, Russian air defenses repelled a drone attack launched by unidentified militants on the strategic Hmeimim air base.

“With the standard anti-aircraft missile systems deployed by the Russian air base, air targets were destroyed at a safe distance,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement at the time.

The statement added that the incident inflicted no damage on the air base.

“There were no injuries or material damage. Russia's Hmeimim air base is operating in normal mode,” it noted.

The ministry added that the militants used three small-sized drones in the attack, which approached the base from the northeast.


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