Russia has seemingly begun pulling its forces from Syria following the fall of the Assad regime over the weekend, satellite imagery suggests.
Syrian rebels seized the capital, Damascus, on Sunday after a lightning advance through the country that sent leader Bashar al-Assad fleeing to Russia, ending a 13-year civil war and 54 years of his family’s autocratic rule.
The rebel victory did not end the conflict in the region.
This week, the Israeli military said it destroyed the regime’s weapons stockpiles and struck Syrian naval facilities including Al-Bayda port and Latakia port.
Fifteen Syrian naval vessels were reportedly docked there at the time.
Russia also has a major air base in the coastal city of Latakia and a naval facility at Tartous.
Russia’s foreign ministry has not yet issued a statement clarifying whether its Latakia facility was affected by Israel’s strike on the port, but satellite imagery suggests Moscow began pulling its forces out of Syria up to two days before the attack.
Russian ships leave Tartous
The satellite images from Planet Labs indicate three ships based in Tartous started to pull away from the coastline on Monday.
They show two guided missile frigates and an oiler moored around 13 kilometres north-west of Tartous.
The Tartous base is Russia’s only Mediterranean repair and replenishment hub, and Moscow has used Syria as a staging post to fly its military contractors in and out of Africa.
Russia earlier had five surface ships and one submarine at Tartous, according to an analysis of satellite imagery by BlackSky and Planet Labs.
An image taken on December 5 by BlackSky showed all six vessels at the base.
Another satellite image, from Maxar Technologies, shows increased traffic at Al Assad Airport in Latakia, which shares some of its airfields with the nearby Russian air base.
A satellite image shows crowds and traffic at Al Assad Airport in Latakia on December 9. (Reuters: Maxar Technologies)
The movement appears to have occurred after Syrian rebels overthrew the Assad regime in Damascus over the weekend.
Russian reporting suggests that although the Syrian insurgence has reached areas where the foreign military is installed, no fighting has broken out between them.
“Yesterday, the opposition took full control of the Latakia province, including the cities of Tartous and Jableh,” Russian state media outlet TASS said earlier.
“The opposition’s armed forces did not and have no plans to penetrate the Russian military bases, which continue to operate normally.”
Moscow, which has been an ally of the Assad regime for decades, is now scrambling to make a deal with the rebels to guarantee the bases’ safety.
Dmitry Peskov, spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said it was “premature to talk about” relations with the rebels.
“This is all a subject for discussion with those who will be in power in Syria,” he said.
“Of course, everything is being done now that is necessary and everything that is possible in order to get in touch with those who can deal with security.
“And, of course, our military is also taking all necessary precautions.”
Reuters/ABC