Russia uses Iran as base for Syria air strikes

Russia used a base in western Iran to carry out air strikes against Syrian militants for the first time today.

In a move underscoring Moscow’s increasingly close ties with Tehran, its defence ministry said that long-range Russian Tupolev-22M3 bombers and Sukhoi-34 fighter bombers took off from Hamadan to strike targets in Syria. It added that targets were hit in the Aleppo, Idlib and Deir al-Zour provinces, killing a “large number” of militants from the Islamic State and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, a rival jihadist group previously known as al-Nusra Front.

They had also resulted in the destruction of five warehouses filled with weapons, ammunition and fuel, and jihadist training camps in the northern provinces of Aleppo and Idlib. Three command centres in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour were also hit.

The Local Co-ordination Committees in Syria said 15 civilians had died in Russian strikes in the Tariq al-Bab district of Aleppo, two in the Daret Izza district, and a further 10 people died in air attacks in the Ommal neighbourhood of Deir al-Zour.

It was the first time Russia has struck targets inside Syria from a third country since it launched a bombing campaign to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in September last year. It was also reportedly the first time that Iran has allowed a foreign power to use its military operations since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The strikes came a day after Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu suggested it was close to an agreement with the US on collaborating in attacks on IS militants around the divided city of Aleppo, where fighting between Syrian government and rebel forces has escalated in recent weeks.

"We are moving step by step closer to a plan - and I'm only talking about Aleppo here - that would really allow us to start fighting together to bring peace so that people can return to their homes in this troubled land," Russia's RIA news agency cited Shoigu as saying.

However, US state department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told reporters: "We have seen the reports and have nothing to announce."

The US has conducted hundreds of air strikes against IS and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham militants in Syria since September 2014, but it backs the rebellion against Assad.

On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch alleged that Russian and Syrian government aircraft had been using incendiary weapons in civilian areas in violation of international law – claims Moscow has denied.