Russia Deployed Bombers to Iranian Base That US Could Use 'Prior to 1979'
14:29 19.08.2016
http://sputniknews.com/politics/20160819/1044429453/russia-iran-hamadan-us.html

The United States has not been happy that Russia and Iran expanded their
military cooperation to an extent that Tehran allowed Moscow to send its
bombers on counterterrorism missions in Syria from the Hamadan airfield, an
unprecedented step for the Islamic Republic.

"Washington described the deployment as 'unfortunate.' Perhaps because the
United States had the right to use the base prior to the Islamic Revolution
of 1979," Stuttgarter Zeitung suggested.

On August 15, an undisclosed number of the Tupolev Tu-22M3 supersonic
long-range strategic bombers and Sukhoi Su-34 strike fighters left the
airfield in the Russian town of Mozdok located in the Republic of North
Ossetia–Alania and landed at the Hamadan airfield in Iran.

Russian bombers deployed to Iran have carried out several massive airstrikes
against Daesh and al-Nusra Front targets in Syria this week. On Thursday,
Tu-22M3s and Su-34 destroyed five large depots with weapons, ammunitions and
fuel, six command and control centers and armored military hardware in the
Deir ez-Zor province, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported. "A large
number of militants" were killed in the operation.

Two days earlier, Russian airstrikes destroyed five large ammunition depots
with weapons, munitions and fuel, as well as militant training camps near
the cities of Serakab, Al-Ghab, Aleppo and Deir ez-Zor cities. In addition,
Russian bombers razed to the ground three command and control centers near
the cities of Jafra and Deir ez-Zor. A "significant number of militants"
were killed in what the Russian Defense Ministry described as a
"concentrated airstrike."

These facilities, the ministry added, were used to support and assist
radical groups fighting near the city of Aleppo.
The German-language daily also added that Russia views its counterterrorism
operation in Syria as an intermediate step on the way to a larger goal of
establishing a naval presence in the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf.

"Russia's contribution to the operation in Syria is just a stage. In the
medium term, Moscow wants to create a counterweight to the US Sixth Fleet
that dominates the eastern Mediterranean. In the long term, Russia also
plans to cover the Persian Gulf where the US Fifth Fleet is based," the
newspaper observed.