MOSCOW — Russia flexed its muscles again over Syria on Friday, for the first time launching cruise missiles at targets from warships in the Mediterranean Sea days after beginning bombing runs from a base in Iran.
Taken together, the new military moves appeared to be a
demonstration that Russia has the ability to strike from virtually all
directions in a region where it has been reasserting its power — from Iran,
from warships in the Caspian Sea, from its base in the Syrian coastal province
of Latakia and now from the Mediterranean.
The United States also asserted its military might in a new
way, scrambling its aircraft to protect its forces, and those it is supporting,
from Syrian government airstrikes. The Pentagon issued a blunt warning to the
Syrian government after its warplanes struck a Kurdish-controlled region where
American military personnel were on the ground.
“The Syrian regime would be well advised not to interfere
with coalition forces or our partners,” said Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon
spokesman.
Talks appear to have stalled between Russia and the
United States on a proposal to carry out joint operations in Syria against
militant groups both countries consider terrorist. Russian and Syrian
government airstrikes have intensified lately, with no progress on the horizon
for a political solution to end the war.
While both Russia and the United States say they share the
goal of defeating the Islamic State group in Syria, they are waging parallel
but separate wars against the militant group while simultaneously backing
opposite sides in the conflict between Russia’s ally, President Bashar
al-Assad of Syria, and his other opponents, including rebels backed by the
United States.
Russian air power, which entered the war last fall, has
helped Mr. Assad hold on to power and make advances against rebels.
The war is also providing President Vladimir V. Putin of
Russia a public proving ground — and a showcase to his adversaries — for new,
sophisticated weaponry.
The Russian cruise missiles are not a game-changer in the
war. But the long-range bombers flying from Iran, and the heavier payloads they
can carry, pose a new threat to insurgents and civilians.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said Friday that two ships
from the country’s Black Sea Fleet, the Zelyony Dol and the Serpukhov, fired
three missiles from positions off the coast of Syria in the eastern
Mediterranean.
The Kalibr missiles are a new addition to Russia’s arsenal,
similar to American Tomahawk cruise missiles. And like Tomahawks, they are
capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
But taken in the context of the dozens of strikes that
Russia carries out daily, the three missile attacks were hardly significant.
The ministry said the missiles hit a garrison, a command center and a weapons
depot belonging to the Levant Conquest Front, until recently called the Nusra
Front and officially affiliated with Al Qaeda.
Far more important militarily is the decision to fly the
long-range bombers from Iran rather than from Moscow as it had before; if it
continues, this could result in a more devastating air war over a long period
of time.
The United States, too, engaged in saber-rattling on Friday.
The Pentagon said it had scrambled aircraft over
northeastern Syria in a warning to the government after Syrian warplanes hit
areas controlled by Kurdish fighters that are working with the American
military to fight the Islamic State. The government and the Kurdish-led forces
have had only occasional skirmishes, maintaining a kind of de facto truce, and
the government airstrikes came amid their most serious clashes yet.
Scrambling the jets was the most robust American response
yet to Syrian government airstrikes, although Syrian and Russian attacks have
repeatedly hit predominantly Arab rebel groups backed by the United States, as
well as hospitals, schools and civilian areas. The American move prompted
grumbling from opponents of Mr. Assad, who said that the United States appeared
ready to offer stronger protection to its Kurdish-led allies than to other
rebel groups or civilians.
Two SU-24 bombers struck Thursday near the city of Hasakah
in north-central Syria, said Captain Davis, the Pentagon spokesman. No members
of the American military were harmed in the strikes, he said.
The episode prompted the United States to contact the
Russian military, which indicated that its planes had not participated in the
strikes, Captain Davis said. American officials urged the Russians to contact
the Syrian government with a blunt message: “United States aircraft would
defend troops on the ground if threatened,” Captain Davis said.
He said American forces on the ground in Syria also tried to
contact the Syrian pilots directly using a standard ground-to-air frequency.
“They did not answer,” he said.
Captain Davis declined to specify how many Americans were on
the ground near where the Syrian strikes occurred, saying only that it was “a
small number.” Over all, the United States has said there are about 300 members
of the Special Forces operating in Syria to train, advise and assist their
partners fighting on the ground.
Correction: August 20, 2016
**An earlier version of a home page headline for this
article referred incorrectly to the missiles Russia fired into Syria. As the
article correctly notes, it is the first time Russia has fired the missiles
into Syria from a warship in the Mediterranean Sea, not the first time Russia
has ever fired missiles into Syria.
***Andrew E. Kramer reported from Moscow, and Anne Barnard
from Beirut, Lebanon. Michael D. Shear contributed reporting from Washington.