Russian missiles heading for Syria landed in Iran | World Defense

Russian missiles heading for Syria landed in Iran

Scorpion

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First on CNN: U.S. officials say Russian missiles heading for Syria landed in Iran

Washington (CNN)A number of cruise missiles launched from a Russian ship and aimed at targets in Syria have crashed in Iran, two U.S. officials told CNN Thursday.



Monitoring by U.S. military and intelligence assets has concluded that at least four missiles crashed as they flew over Iran.


The U.S. believes, based on intelligence reports of damage assessments, that some buildings were damaged and civilians may have been hurt.

It's unclear where in Iran the missiles landed. The Russian ships have been positioned in the south Caspian Sea, meaning the likely flight path for missiles into Syria would cross over both Iran and Iraq.

The Russians have been firing a relatively new cruise missile called "Kaliber," using it for the first time in combat.

READ: U.S. aircraft diverted to avoid Russian fighter in Syria

The Russian Defense Ministry, however, took strong issue with the CNN report in a posting on Facebook Thursday.

"Unlike CNN, we don't report quoting anonymous sources, but we show launches of our missiles and the targets they hit in real-time mode," the statement reads, noting that Russian drones are operating in Syria around the clock, presumably monitoring operations.

It continues, "No matter how unpleasant and unexpected it is for our colleagues in the Pentagon and Langley, our strike yesterday with precision-guided weapons at ISIS infrastructure in Syria hit its targets."

In response, one U.S. official familiar with the intelligence reports told CNN, "These are the people who told us there were no little green men in Crimea."

The official was referring to Moscow's denials that men wearing green fatigues and using Russian weapons to fight the Ukraine government -- often dubbed "little green men" -- were in fact Russian soldiers. Moscow later annexed Crimea.

Iran's semi-official FARS news agency also said that Iranian authorities also haven't confirmed the U.S. officials' information at this point.

On Wednesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin on Russian television that all 26 missiles launched from four missile ships struck their targets, with no civilian facilities hit. Putin then congratulated him on the performance of the weapons.


It was not clear whether Shoigu was referring to the same missiles as the U.S. officials, as the latter may have been describing ones launched after the TV appearance.

The assessment came as Defense Secretary Ashton Carter warned Thursday at NATO headquarters in Brussels that Russia would likely suffer casualties "within the coming days" as it deepens its military involvement in Syria.

Carter also took rhetorical aim at Moscow Thursday, calling out Russia for "increasingly unprofessional behavior" after a Russian fighter jet violated Turkish airspace earlier this week and after Russia launched missiles into Syria from the Caspian Sea "without warning."

While Carter again pointed to the need for an agreement on "professional safety procedures" to avoid accidents in Syrian skies between Russian and U.S.-led sorties, which are taking aim at ISIS, he stressed that the U.S. would not cooperate militarily at a strategic level with Russia.

"We have not and will not agree to cooperate with Russia so long as they continue to pursue this misguided strategy," he said earlier in the week. "It remains our hope that Russia will see that tethering itself to a sinking ship is a losing strategy because Russia has the opportunity to change course and do the right thing. I don't know if they will."

In Rome earlier in his trip, Carter described to a "tragically flawed" Russian strategy in Syria, where Russian military actions appear increasingly aimed at bolstering the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad in his struggle against rebel forces and less at fighting ISIS.


U.S. and Russian military officials have yet to establish a reliable communication channel to avoid potentially tragic accidents between Russian and U.S.-led forces operating in Syrian airspace.

State Department spokesman John Kirby declined to confirm that the Russian missiles had landed in Iran when asked about them at the daily press briefing Thursday, but he did say that such an incident would point to the need for better coordination.

"If something like that happened, again, I can't confirm it, but I think it points all the more towards the need to have proper de-confliction procedures in place," he said.

The U.S. and Russia did hold a high-level phone call Thursday. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spokes for about half an hour about Syria and Ukraine, according to Kirby.

Kerry reiterated U.S. concerns about the high number of non-ISIS targets that Russia has struck, he said. "They also talked about the importance of moving forward on tactical discussions and dialogue towards the goal of de-confliction, again to avoid mishaps and misunderstandings, particularly in the air."

Kerry also emphasized the need for a political solution to the civil war in Syria, which he said required a transitional government to move away from Assad.

Separately, a U.S. defense official told CNN that there have been at least two incidents in which Russian fighter jets flew in close proximity to U.S. drones. The first incident was not believed to be deliberate. However, the U.S. assessment is that the second encounter was a deliberate attempt to shadow the unmanned aircraft.

Unlike the recent encounters with manned U.S. fighter jets, the drones did not turn away, since no pilots were at risk.

U.S.: Russian missiles heading for Syria landed in Iran - CNNPolitics.com
 

Corzhens

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So it it still a war of words between Russia and the US on that issue of a wrong target. We do not know the truth eh? But if true that Russian missiles went awry and hit Iran instead of Syria, that would be a "little" problem between the 2 countries. What's a big problem is when the US missile would land in Iran and inflict damage. Whatever, let's wait for a confirmation on what really happened.
 

Susimi

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Considering Iran is an ally of Russia, I wonder if they will announce it themselves, that is if some of the missiles did in face land in Iran.

If true though I can imagine Russia will be a little embarrassed by this.
 

Redheart

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Since there were no civilian casualties, Russia won't admit that their "Kaliber" cruise missiles missed their targets.

And as for the Iranians failure to confirm whether the missiles actually did land in Iran, maybe the fact that their missile defenses didn't intercept these missiles will force them to deny any breach. They'll keep up the pretense that everything is fine.
 

JUBA

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Too bad it didn't hit during one of Khamanie speeches. That would've been great!
 

Susimi

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Since there were no civilian casualties, Russia won't admit that their "Kaliber" cruise missiles missed their targets.

And as for the Iranians failure to confirm whether the missiles actually did land in Iran, maybe the fact that their missile defenses didn't intercept these missiles will force them to deny any breach. They'll keep up the pretense that everything is fine.

That actually does raise a good point.

Since there was no loss of life I can imagine both nations will want to keep it a secret between them rather than let the world know their weapons systems failed them. I can imagine Iran will be feeling a little anxious however because what if it was a hostile attack and their defence systems failed to intercept the missiles?
 

Redheart

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The bad news for Israel and anyone else who intends to attack Iran though is they are getting Russia's advanced S-300 Missile defense system. So even though their missile defenses aren't great at the moment everything is about to change because . . .

Iran claims Russia has started delivery of S-300 missile defense system | The Times of Israel
Tehran announced Monday that Russia had begun delivering its advanced S-300 air defense system to Iran in accordance with an agreement struck between the two countries earlier this year.

A defense ministry press release quoted by Iran’s semi-official Fars News dismissed “recent media reports” skeptical of the military deal, and confirmed the delivery of the S-300 surface-to-air missile system was underway.

The S-300 is capable of tracking multiple planes at once and some versions have an interception range of 200 kilometers. It is considered to be one of the most sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons in the world.
 

Susimi

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I've been hearing about this over the recent weeks and the S-300 system from what I've been reading on it does indeed seem to be a very powerful system.

Israel I can imagine will be keeping a VERY close eye on this situation.
 

ke gordon

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First on CNN: U.S. officials say Russian missiles heading for Syria landed in Iran

Washington (CNN)A number of cruise missiles launched from a Russian ship and aimed at targets in Syria have crashed in Iran, two U.S. officials told CNN Thursday.



Monitoring by U.S. military and intelligence assets has concluded that at least four missiles crashed as they flew over Iran.


The U.S. believes, based on intelligence reports of damage assessments, that some buildings were damaged and civilians may have been hurt.

It's unclear where in Iran the missiles landed. The Russian ships have been positioned in the south Caspian Sea, meaning the likely flight path for missiles into Syria would cross over both Iran and Iraq.

The Russians have been firing a relatively new cruise missile called "Kaliber," using it for the first time in combat.

READ: U.S. aircraft diverted to avoid Russian fighter in Syria

The Russian Defense Ministry, however, took strong issue with the CNN report in a posting on Facebook Thursday.

"Unlike CNN, we don't report quoting anonymous sources, but we show launches of our missiles and the targets they hit in real-time mode," the statement reads, noting that Russian drones are operating in Syria around the clock, presumably monitoring operations.

It continues, "No matter how unpleasant and unexpected it is for our colleagues in the Pentagon and Langley, our strike yesterday with precision-guided weapons at ISIS infrastructure in Syria hit its targets."

In response, one U.S. official familiar with the intelligence reports told CNN, "These are the people who told us there were no little green men in Crimea."

The official was referring to Moscow's denials that men wearing green fatigues and using Russian weapons to fight the Ukraine government -- often dubbed "little green men" -- were in fact Russian soldiers. Moscow later annexed Crimea.

Iran's semi-official FARS news agency also said that Iranian authorities also haven't confirmed the U.S. officials' information at this point.

On Wednesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin on Russian television that all 26 missiles launched from four missile ships struck their targets, with no civilian facilities hit. Putin then congratulated him on the performance of the weapons.


It was not clear whether Shoigu was referring to the same missiles as the U.S. officials, as the latter may have been describing ones launched after the TV appearance.

The assessment came as Defense Secretary Ashton Carter warned Thursday at NATO headquarters in Brussels that Russia would likely suffer casualties "within the coming days" as it deepens its military involvement in Syria.

Carter also took rhetorical aim at Moscow Thursday, calling out Russia for "increasingly unprofessional behavior" after a Russian fighter jet violated Turkish airspace earlier this week and after Russia launched missiles into Syria from the Caspian Sea "without warning."

While Carter again pointed to the need for an agreement on "professional safety procedures" to avoid accidents in Syrian skies between Russian and U.S.-led sorties, which are taking aim at ISIS, he stressed that the U.S. would not cooperate militarily at a strategic level with Russia.

"We have not and will not agree to cooperate with Russia so long as they continue to pursue this misguided strategy," he said earlier in the week. "It remains our hope that Russia will see that tethering itself to a sinking ship is a losing strategy because Russia has the opportunity to change course and do the right thing. I don't know if they will."

In Rome earlier in his trip, Carter described to a "tragically flawed" Russian strategy in Syria, where Russian military actions appear increasingly aimed at bolstering the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad in his struggle against rebel forces and less at fighting ISIS.


U.S. and Russian military officials have yet to establish a reliable communication channel to avoid potentially tragic accidents between Russian and U.S.-led forces operating in Syrian airspace.

State Department spokesman John Kirby declined to confirm that the Russian missiles had landed in Iran when asked about them at the daily press briefing Thursday, but he did say that such an incident would point to the need for better coordination.

"If something like that happened, again, I can't confirm it, but I think it points all the more towards the need to have proper de-confliction procedures in place," he said.

The U.S. and Russia did hold a high-level phone call Thursday. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spokes for about half an hour about Syria and Ukraine, according to Kirby.

Kerry reiterated U.S. concerns about the high number of non-ISIS targets that Russia has struck, he said. "They also talked about the importance of moving forward on tactical discussions and dialogue towards the goal of de-confliction, again to avoid mishaps and misunderstandings, particularly in the air."

Kerry also emphasized the need for a political solution to the civil war in Syria, which he said required a transitional government to move away from Assad.

Separately, a U.S. defense official told CNN that there have been at least two incidents in which Russian fighter jets flew in close proximity to U.S. drones. The first incident was not believed to be deliberate. However, the U.S. assessment is that the second encounter was a deliberate attempt to shadow the unmanned aircraft.

Unlike the recent encounters with manned U.S. fighter jets, the drones did not turn away, since no pilots were at risk.

U.S.: Russian missiles heading for Syria landed in Iran - CNNPolitics.com
Well, I think the US policy in not trusting Russia as far as they can throw them is correct. I mean they are complicating an already tense situation by their presence. Who knows what their real motivation is in going into the airspace? I think they are unlikely to be doing anything positive really.
 
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