A portrait of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin hangs above as Russian military trucks enter the … More Russian-leased Syrian military base of Hmeimim in Latakia province in western Syria on December 29, 2024. (Photo by AAREF WATAD\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
The Russian military leased Hmeimim airbase in western Syria\u2019s coastal Latakia province faced its deadliest attack since the December 2024 fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on May 20. While much remains unclear about this particular attack, it has aptly demonstrated the increasingly vulnerable position of Russia\u2019s sole airbase in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, May 20, militants of unknown affiliation attacked Hmeimim, leaving at least two soldiers<\/a> and two of the attacking militants dead. It\u2019s unclear if the soldiers were Russian personnel or security forces of the incumbent Syrian Transitional Government in Damascus.<\/p>\n Kyle Orton, an independent Middle East analyst, said the details of the attack remain \u201cvery murky,\u201d although there are some possible clues as to what exactly happened.<\/p>\n \u201cRussian military bloggers on Telegram admit that the Russians suffered casualties but did not say how many,\u201d Orton told me.<\/p>\n \u201cSome social media reports from Syria suggest as many as five Russian soldiers were killed; it is impossible to say,\u201d he said. \u201cLikewise, we do not really know how many attackers were killed; one claim that has spread around is that it was four.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is clear is that the attackers were jihadists, and at least some of them were foreign.\u201d<\/p>\n Orton noted that the alleged kunya, a title given to an adult derived from the name of their eldest first-born child, of one of the Syrians killed was Abu Bakr al-Safarani. Abu Jihad al-Masri was allegedly the name of another attacker reportedly killed and was believed to have been an Egyptian.<\/p>\n \u201cAs to what actually happened, we are again rather in the dark,\u201d Orton said. \u201cI have seen estimates of the size of the attack team that range from eight to 20; both could be (probably are) wrong, but it does seem it was a small team.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe martyrdom notices for the jihadists claim they were inghimasi, that is, shock troops who break through enemy lines and kill as many people as they can until they are killed,\u201d he added. \u201cWhile this seems to be true, there are conflicting reports about whether the attackers actually got into the base.\u201d<\/p>\n Russia first deployed military personnel, fighter-bomber jets, and air defenses at Hmeimim in 2015 during the Syrian civil war on the side of the Assad regime. Its warplanes relentlessly bombed Syrian cities and opposition-held urban areas in support of Assad, including Aleppo and Idlib. However, at the end of last year, the Islamist opposition group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham burst out of its Idlib stronghold and, in coordination with other groups, swiftly advanced on the capital Damascus. Assad promptly fled to his new life in exile in Moscow.<\/p>\n HTS dissolved itself into the new Syrian Transitional Government headed by its former leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, previously known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Julani during his militia leader years. Moscow scrambled to forge new relations with the leader whose forces it had bombed for almost a decade in hopes of retaining at least some access to Hmeimim and the Tartus naval base. Shortly after Assad\u2019s fall, Russia withdrew<\/a> its strategic S-400 air defense missile systems and other heavy equipment from its Syria airbase.<\/p>\n