Drone attack repelled by Russia’s Khmeimim Air Base in Syria – MoD

Six suicide drones launched at the Russian Khmeimim Air Base on Sunday have been shot down, the Russian Defense Ministry said. The air defenses destroyed the UAVs at a “safe distance,” and no damage was caused to the base.

The militants have repeatedly sought to hit the Russian facility located in the Syrian Latakia province. On August 8, they fired four rockets in an attempt to strike the base. All the projectiles failed to reach their targets as they exploded mid-air. However, two civilians from a nearby village died in the incident and four more were injured.

Earlier this week, the extremists sought to shell the base but the facility remained unaffected while the attack left another four civilians injured. On May 6, the facility was fruitlessly shelled by dozens of rockets.

The attacks on the base sometimes coincided with militant offensives in the Idlib province, where large parts of the territory are still controlled by radical Islamists such as the Hayat Tahrir ash-Sham terrorist group (formerly known as the Al-Nusra Front, an Al-Qaeda affiliate). During one such offensive in late May, the base was targeted by 17 missiles, which were either intercepted or fell short.

Khmeimim base has also been targeted by drones on numerous occasions over recent years. In 2018, the facility saw at least seven such attacks between May and August with some of them happening within 24 hours of one another.

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