http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-37093854

6 Tu-22M3 bombers and some Su-34's have been transferred to Khamad Airbase in Iran in the last few days and they flew their first mission yesterday.

Great news for the Tupolevs as it cuts down the flight time to their targets in Syria. Before this they were taking off from Mozdok in Southern Russia, overflying the Caspian Sea, overflying Iranian and then Iraqi airspace and back again after.

Wishin' them all the best!

Besides helicopter strikes, there have been 10,000 Russian sorties flown from Hmeymim airbase in Latakia province.
So far, including the Mozdok flights, there have been less than 100 sorties made by those Tupolevs, and now they've been withdrawn back to Mozdok again.
Yet there probably is a political message in this story.

The US press went nearly berserk with this news like it was some kind of affront to our international standing. I don't know why people would think we'd ever try to or actually prevent two nations closely cooperating on many fronts to cooperate on a military one. It's not as if we're friends with either country and we already have (just guessing here) maybe 20 air bases and/or carrier groups within 1 hour of striking distance to just about any point in the ME. I've said it before, Syria is the literal arabic word for "quagmire" with red flashing lights all over it. Syria, Russia and Iran are aligned against these "allied rebels" we support, and which no one seems to be able to define in any kind of sensical way, while Turkey has a genocidal death wish against the Kurds we support in the north. I feel badly for the Syrian victims of this war, and you can't help but cry out for the bloodied child in Aleppo, but Syria is the very epicenter of everything that's gone wrong with this region and religion. If Russia wants to fix it I say we give them carte blanche. There is absolutely nothing to be gained from direct and sustained US military action in Syria. The country has never been friendly to the US and the lessons of of our miserable failure at nation-building in Iraq v2.0 should be like a hammer dropping on our big toe every day. Sadly the latter is not the case and there is still an endless yearning for warfare in this country.

wingman wrote:

The US press went nearly berserk with this news like it was some kind of affront to our international standing. I don't know why people would think we'd ever try to or actually prevent two nations closely cooperating on many fronts to cooperate on a military one. It's not as if we're friends with either country and we already have (just guessing here) maybe 20 air bases and/or carrier groups within 1 hour of striking distance to just about any point in the ME. I've said it before, Syria is the literal arabic word for "quagmire" with red flashing lights all over it. Syria, Russia and Iran are aligned against these "allied rebels" we support, and which no one seems to be able to define in any kind of sensical way, while Turkey has a genocidal death wish against the Kurds we support in the north. I feel badly for the Syrian victims of this war, and you can't help but cry out for the bloodied child in Aleppo, but Syria is the very epicenter of everything that's gone wrong with this region and religion. If Russia wants to fix it I say we give them carte blanche. There is absolutely nothing to be gained from direct and sustained US military action in Syria. The country has never been friendly to the US and the lessons of of our miserable failure at nation-building in Iraq v2.0 should be like a hammer dropping on our big toe every day. Sadly the latter is not the case and there is still an endless yearning for warfare in this country.

Your comments are right on. The current conflict in Syria has so many different sides that the United States should steer clear of that country and let all of the various parties and actors hash it out. Keep in mind too that the Syrian people have a long history (all the way back to Old Testament times) of engaging in warfare with their neighbors. I don't think they are going to change anytime soon.

dfwjim1 wrote:

Keep in mind too that the Syrian people have a long history (all the way back to Old Testament times) of engaging in warfare with their neighbors. I don't think they are going to change anytime soon.

This is utterly untrue. This cliche has been used to keep the American populace uninformed for far too long. With the exception of foreign invasions (and yes the British / French actions in the early 20th century count as invasions) the Levant and greater Syria region has been a pastoral backwater in the history of war.

And Russia has been ejected from the Iranian base:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/russia-ira ... -1.3730454

ThePointblank wrote:

And Russia has been ejected from the Iranian base:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/russia-ira ... -1.3730454

It's optics. Iran didn't want the attention, but were clearly willing to let the Russians do their thing from Iranian soil.

They'll sit around a while and then quietly let them back in again -- this time with the Russians playing things like adults.

Cheers
A

"Ungentlemanly".....sheesh!!! Fine..then just chop off their fekin heads...

dfwjim1 wrote:

Your comments are right on. The current conflict in Syria has so many different sides that the United States should steer clear of that country and let all of the various parties and actors hash it out.

The US is a core and causal actor in this conflict ( in lockstep with Saudia and some other nations all on a religious jihad.)

Without the US this conflict would not exist.