US and UK planning terrorist attacks on Russian bases in Syria – intel

Washington and London aim to use Islamic State fighters to carry out the assaults, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has said

The US and UK are planning terrorist attacks on Russian bases in Syria in order to prevent the situation in the country from stabilizing, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has said.

Since the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government earlier this month, Washington and London have set a goal of “maintaining chaos in the Middle East” in order to achieve a lasting dominance over the region, the agency said in a statement on Saturday.

However, Russia’s military presence on the Mediterranean coast of Syria, which still serves as a significant factor in regional stability, has been hampering the realization of their plans, it stressed.

“In order to remove this ‘obstacle,’ British intelligence services are developing plans to organize a series of terrorist attacks on Russian military facilities in Syria,” the SVR said.

The role of the perpetrators of those assaults will be assigned to the fighters of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), who were released from prisons after the regime change in the country, it added.

“According to available information, representatives of the British intelligence service MI6 and the America’s CIA recently tasked Syria-based IS commanders under their control with carrying out a series of attacks on Russian military bases. To do out this dirty work, the terrorists received attack UAVs,” the statement read.

In order to cover up their involvement in the planned Islamic State attacks on Russian bases, the US and UK military commands have instructed their air forces to continue to carry out strikes on IS positions in Syria, the SVR claimed.

The terrorists are being warned about those airstrikes in advance, it added. “London and Washington hope that such provocations will prompt Russia to evacuate its troops from Syria. At the same time, the new Syrian authorities will be accused of being unable to control the radicals,” the statement read.

Russia had been an ally of Assad’s government, helping Syria to fight terrorism since 2015. In 2017, Moscow and Damascus signed a deal for a 49-year lease by the Russian military of the Tartus naval base and the Khmeimim airbase in the east of the country.

During his end-of-year press conference last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that “an overwhelming majority” within the group now controlling the situation in Syria “have expressed an interest in retaining our military bases.”

The Tartus and Khmeimim facilities are currently being used to deliver much-needed humanitarian aid to the country, he added. The issue of maintaining a Russian military presence in Syria requires “careful consideration,” Putin stressed. “We must reflect on how our relations will evolve with the political forces currently in control and those that will govern this country in the future.”

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