RUSSIAN MILITARY BASE ENGAGES IN US-IRANIAN CONFLICT IN SYRIAN ‘BADIA REGION’

A man walks past damaged cars at a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in Idlib, Syria, on Sunday.

London –Russia has entered the arena of conflict between the US and Iran in the Syrian Badia region, as Moscow established a military base eastern Damascus in parallel with Tehran’s move to transform “Al-sin” airport into a base for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Debka’s intelligence news agency reported that the Russian engineering corps had started building a new base in southeastern Syria at a small village called Khirbet Ras Al-Waar in the Bir al-Qasab district.

The report added that the new facility was the first to be established since Moscow’s initial military intervention in the Syrian war in September 2015.

Military sources quoted by the agency said the new base would provide Russia with a lever of control over the Syrian southeast and its borders, which are witnessing fighting between US and Iranian forces.

The area of Khirbet Ras Al-Waar is located 50 kilometers from Damascus, 85 kilometers from central Golan Heights and 110 kilometers from southern Golan, not far from the American and Jordanian special forces garrison at the al-Tanf crossing inside the Syrian, Jordanian and Iraqi border triangle.

Last week, the US, Russia and Jordan have agreed on a trilateral accord to establish safe zones between Damascus and Jordan.

One of the points of the memorandum of accord stipulates that non-Syrian forces, in reference to Hezbollah and the IRGC, are kept 30 kilometers away from the borders with Jordan.

The memorandum has eight points, including the withdrawal of all Shiite militias from Daraa and the southern front, the opening of humanitarian corridors, in addition to a pledge by the Russian side to guarantee its commitment to the truce.

Meanwhile, Zaman al-Wasl reported on Sunday that the IRGC forces have seized “Al-Sin” airport eastern Damascus. It added that several Iranian aircrafts have landed in Syria’s third largest airport.

Also on Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that Israeli airstrikes targeted areas in the countryside of al-Quneitra, for the second time in the past 24 hours.