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New satellite images show the Russians packing up their stuff amid a flurry of activity at a key airbase in Syria
Newly captured satellite imagery seems to show the Russians moving military equipment out of a strategic airbase in Syria as its long-standing presence in the country remains in limbo.
The images, captured by BlackSky and obtained by Business Insider, show new activity at the Hmeimim Air Base over the past few days and suggest that Russia is scaling down its military footprint in Syria following the shocking collapse of the Assad government earlier this month.
UAE flights flood airstrip UN says supplies weapons to Sudan rebels
Since civil war erupted in Sudan last year, dozens of cargo planes from the United Arab Emirates have landed at a small airstrip in Chad that some U.N. experts and diplomats suspect is being used to funnel arms across the border into the conflict, flight data and satellite images show.
In total, Reuters identified 170 flights, using satellite imagery from Planet, Maxar and BlackSky, by planes that are based in the UAE that headed on the route for Amdjarass since the start of the war.
We compared satellite images of Russia’s naval base in Syria before and after Assad’s fall. The warships are missing.
Russia’s warships have been missing from its base in Syria in the days after rebel forces ousted the country’s longtime dictator, Bashar Assad, satellite imagery obtained by Business Insider shows.
It’s unclear whether the Russian warships have left for good. A December 1 image shows several warships docked in Tartus, but two days later, they were no longer there. By Friday, some warships — including two surface combatants and a submarine — were back. But three days later, they were gone once again.
The vessels remained away from their berths as of Tuesday, according to a new satellite image taken by BlackSky.
A separate image captured on Thursday by BlackSky, which provides space-based real-time intelligence, showed that the original six vessels docked at Tartus at the start of the month returned. This suggests Russia may have gradually moved its assets away from the port as Assad’s government crumbled.