Militants Fire 12 Rockets At Russian Air Base In Syria

Militants launched an attack against Russian air base in Syria on Wednesday by firing 12 rockets which were all destroyed by Russian air defense systems.

"Today, at 15 hours and 15 minutes, militants of the Katiba Ard al-Bab and Katiba Jabel Butma terrorist groupings (both outlawed in Russia) made another attempt from the Idlib de-escalation zone to shell the Russian Hmeymim airbase," Major-General Viktor Kupchishin, Head of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of Warring Sides in the Syrian Arab Republic (part of Russia’s Defense Ministry), was quoted as saying by TASS.

"Overall, 12 rockets were fired and all of them were destroyed by air defense weapons systems," he added.

"Thanks to the effectively organized air defense of the Russian Hmeymim airbase, all the rockets were shot down by alert air defense capabilities. There are no casualties or destructions," he stressed.

He went on to further state that the militants attacked the Russian air base from two different firing positions which were defended effectively by Russian aircraft and Syrian artillery.

"The Russian Aerospace Force’s aircraft and artillery of the Syrian government troops destroyed the positions of militants of the terrorist groupings," he said.
There have been two other similar attack launched against Russian bases in Syria this month- on May 2 and May 6.

Pantsir-S, Tor-M1 surface-to-air missile systems shot down 27 rockets fired at the military bases while Russian aircraft were used to target the militants who fired the rockets, the report added.