Russia sends tanks to Syria, ‘escalates’ military presence

Russia has sent some of its most modern battle tanks to a new air base in Syria in what US officials said on Monday was part of an escalating buildup that could give Moscow its most significant military foothold in the Middle East in decades.

Pentagon officials said that the Russian weapons and equipment that had arrived suggested that the Kremlin’s plan is to turn the airfield south of Latakia in western Syria into a major hub that could be used to bring in military supplies for the government of president Bashar al-Assad .

It might also serve as a staging area for airstrikes in support of Syrian government forces.

“We have seen movement of people and things that would suggest the air base south of Latakia could be used as a forward air operating base,” said Capt Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.

US military specialists analysing satellite photographs and other information said Russia had about half a dozen T-90 tanks, 15 howitzers, 35 armoured personnel carriers, 200 marines and housing for as many as 1,500 personnel at the airfield near the Assad family’s ancestral home.

And more is on the way as Russia appears to be attempting to increase its influence in Syria amid the civil strife there, the officials said.

“There were military supplies, they are ongoing, and they will continue,” Sergey V Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies on Sunday.

“They are inevitably accompanied by Russian specialists, who help to adjust the equipment, to train Syrian personnel how to use this weaponry,” he said.

The military buildup by Russia, which has been supporting Mr Assad throughout the 4 1/2-year-old Syrian civil war, adds a new friction point in its relations with the US.

Andrew S Weiss, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: "I don't believe western governments are prepared to do very much to slow down or block the risky course the Russians are going on."

New York Times