Seven US spy planes spotted near Russian facilities in Syria - Russian jets cover Syria's airspace after reports of US spy planes - UPDATE

Sputnik
Fri, 13 Apr 2018 10:21 UTC

© AFP 2018 / Greg WOOD

US Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft

Neither Moscow nor Washington has commented on reports about US anti-submarine aircraft flying over Syria's eastern coast, where Russia's Hmeymim Airbase is located. The alleged flyover comes amid Washington's threats to launch a missile strike on Syria.

A Twitter account of the Mil Radar, which tracks military aviation flights, has reported that seven US patrol planes have allegedly conducted reconnaissance missions in the Eastern Mediterranean over Syria's coast.

The six P-8A Poseidon anti-submarine patrol aircraft and the EP-3E Aries II electronic warfare and reconnaissance aircraft reportedly flew over the area where Russia's Hmeymin Airbase and the logistics base of the Russian Navy in Tartus are located.

Russian and US officials have not commented on the reports, which came after the CNBC news network cited a source as saying on the condition of anonymity that the US is considering striking eight potential targets in Syria. These may include two Syrian airfields, a research center and a chemical weapons facility.

Earlier on his Twitter page, President Donald Trump urged Russia to get ready for "new and smart" US missiles to be launched at Syria, a message that was followed by Trump tweeting that Washington's relationship with Moscow "is worse now than it has ever been," including during the Cold War.

Reacting to Trump's messages, the Russian President's spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that Moscow "does not support Twitter diplomacy." He called for a more serious approach in order to avoid escalating an "already fragile situation."

Shortly after, Trump declared in a new tweet that the attack on Syria "could be very soon or not so soon at all" and that he has "never said when an attack on Syria would take place."

White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders, for her part, said in a statement on Thursday that Trump has not yet made a final decision on the use of forces against Syria and is still looking at the intelligence information.

Trump's controversial rhetoric follows allegations by several Syrian opposition media platforms, including the White Helmets group, of a chemical weapons attack allegedly carried out by Syrian government forces in the city of Douma on April 7.

Both Damascus and Moscow have rejected the allegations as a false flag, with the Russian Defense Ministry earlier reporting that an analysis of Douma soil, which was taken shortly after the alleged chemical weapons attack, indicated the absence of nerve agents and chlorine-containing poisonous substances in the area.

Comment: Update: Russian jets are highly active above Syria today, following reports of U.S. spy planes near the coastal provinces of Tartous and Latakia.

According to earlier reports, seven U.S. spy planes were flying along the Syrian coast, with some of the aircraft approaching the Hmaymim Military Airport in the southwestern part of Latakia.

While Russian jets have been routinely flying along the coast since the U.S. President Donald Trump's threats, they have recently increased the number of flights over the last 12 hours.

Russian jets have also been cited in several places across Syria, including the Homs, Deir Ezzor, Hama, and Idlib governorates.

See also: US spy planes continue flights over Russian base on Syria's Mediterranean coasts