AhlulBayt News Agency - The second group of Russian warplanes left the Khmeimim airbase in Syria’s Latakia province on Wednesday morning, the Russian Ministry of Defense has announced.
"Another group of Russian aircraft took off from the airbase in Khmeimim heading to places of permanent deployment on the territory of the Russian Federation," the military statement said.
The ministry added that the new batch of planes comprising Su-25 fighter jets is led by a strategic airlifter, the Il-76. All planes returning to home bases in Russia are flying in “flocks” headed by a “leader” aircraft – either Tu-154 or Il-76 transport aircraft – that carries the technical engineering crew, along with other cargo.
On Tuesday, the first group of Russian aircraft, military equipment as well as soldiers left the Arab country. The planes included Ilyushin-76 transport aircraft and Su-34 fighter jets.
The planes were welcomed at a base near the Russian city of Voronezh.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered the bulk of Syria-based Russian military forces to withdraw from the Arab country.
Putin hailed Russia’s almost six-month-aerial campaign in Syria as a positive step, saying the withdrawal could serve as a stimulus for the ongoing peace talks aimed at resolving the five-year deadly crisis gripping Syria.
The Russian president, however, said Hmeimim base and the Russian naval facility in the western Syrian port of Tartus will remain operational.
Damascus says the withdrawal of Russian forces came in complete coordination with Syria and was “carefully and accurately studied.”
UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said Moscow’s move was a "significant development" which "we hope will have a positive impact on the progress of the negotiations.”
A fresh round of Syrian peace talks began in Geneva on Monday after the first round collapsed in early February as the the main Syrian opposition group, the so-called High Negotiations Committee (HNC), left the negotiations amid gains made by the Syrian army against militants on several fronts.
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. According to a February report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.
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