Reports | 25 05 2020
Over the past seven years, the Syrian regime has managed to neutralize the cities of Lattakia and Tartus regarding the conflict in the rest of the Syrian provinces. The regime enjoys widespread popularity in these cities, where Russia has taken a safe place to build military bases.
A while ago the Russian Air Force monitored a group of drones in the south-east of Lattakia near Khmeimim base and the Russian naval base at Tartus (central-west). The air force was able to shoot down some of them and to disable the others before they could reach their goals.
After many people have directly seen the drones, a state of fear and anticipation soon spread among civilians in the area.
The Russian Ministry of Defence stated that the techniques used in these drones are not the Syrian opposition factions’ and that it is manufactured by “States,” while the US Department of Defence responded in another statement that drones are available in the market.
The incursion of the Syrian army into more than one area in the recent period, with the support of the Russian Air Force, made the people of the coastal city of Tartus (Central West) very optimistic, but information about drones attack on the Russian base Khmeimim put an end to their optimism.
At the beginning, Russians denied the news of the drones attack, but later the Russian Defence Ministry confirmed the attack and considered that some countries are behind this, for the opposition is unable to invent the components of the drone and to direct the drones towards the goals, said the civil engineer Abu Salama to Rozana. He added that “I am really worried now.”
In general, the military bases of Khmeimim and Tartus were the first signs of military stability on the Syrian coast, because Russia was able to keep the two areas calm over the previous years. But the existence of such large-scale attack on the bases in this simple way triggered a high level of suspicion among citizens about its ability to maintain security in both cities.
In one of the small minibuses in a garage in the city of Tartus, there is talk that reflects the thoughts and concerns of people. “No one can deny the drones attack ... Many people saw them, and some residents of the town of Jibla (Latakia countryside) saw it over their city previously, just before the attack on the Khmeimim air base,” said Abu Mohammed, the bus driver.
He added that “the drones attack on the two Russian bases is the main topic of the conversations of the people of Tartus .. No place for other stories now.”
He added that “Russia of today is smarter than yesterday’s Russia, and if the Western media tried to promote a simple drone attack to signal a Russian failure in Syria, the story of the drone then is a Russian plot, a Russian trap into which the West fell... Russia has not failed but the West has.”
Nawar studies at the Sports Academy at Tishreen University, one of the six state universities in Latakia, but that does not hinder him from pursuing the issues of his country, he asserted.
“I hope that the West is the one that failed in Syria,” says the driver Abu Mohammed, pointing to a wall where pictures of Syrian regime soldiers, who were killed over the long years of war, hung.
“The war today is not between the army of the Syrian regime and the armed opponents, but between Russia and America,” clarified Abu Wael, the school counsellor who is also a passenger in the minibus.
Wael wears thick glasses but this does not prevent him from seeing events as they are, not as they tell him, he told Rozana.
“I do not know who will win, but I know we will lose,” explained Abu Wael.
“The battles are far away, yes, but the sounds of the guns could still be heard, and the images of the dead people on the walls of my city disturb me. With the presence of the drone now, I have to fear a lot,” said Abu Mohammed, expressing the concerns of the residents of Tartus and their fear of the new attack, represented by drones: the new nightmare in the skies of the Syrian regime-controlled areas.