Moscow Questions Damascus About Source of Fire Against Russia’s Humeimim Base

Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses Russian troops as he visits the Hmeimim military base on December 11. TASS
Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses Russian troops as he visits the Hmeimim military base on December 11. TASS
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Moscow Questions Damascus About Source of Fire Against Russia’s Humeimim Base

Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses Russian troops as he visits the Hmeimim military base on December 11. TASS
Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses Russian troops as he visits the Hmeimim military base on December 11. TASS

Conflicting speculations emerged on Friday concerning the party responsible for the damage caused by a mortar attack against the Hmeimim Russian air force base in Syria on December 31, 2017, with reports saying that Moscow has asked Damascus about the shelling.

Russia’s Defense Ministry failed to reveal any details about what happened at the base to help identify the source and the size of the mortar used in the shooting.

Russian political figures held ISIS militants trained by Washington, responsible for the attack.

In the meantime, military experts from Russia were trying to avoid any seeming suspicions pointed at the Syrian regime.

For its part, Syrian opposition groups said that the attack could be launched either by anti-regime groups from the Alawite sect or by Iranian-backed militias.

Russia’s Kommersant newspaper was the first to write about the Hmeimim incident, reporting that seven warplanes had been destroyed in the shelling.

The report pushed later the Defense Ministry to admit in a statement that the Hmeimim air base was subjected to sudden mortar shelling from a mobile group of militants. “As a result of the shelling, two servicemen were killed,” it said.

Russia Today channel quoted a report published earlier by Russian-language Vestnik Mordovia newspaper concerning the type of the mortar used in the shelling.

Without naming any expert, the report said that the attack against the Hmeimim air base was conducted by a Vasilek gun-mortar dating back to the 1950s and is still used by many armies of the world and produced by Russia so far.

The website said that the Syrian Army does not possess this type of gun which proves that terrorists got it through Turkey and confirms that Washington is behind the attack on Hmeimim airbase.

The Military Balance website confirmed that Syrian regime forces have used such kind of mortars until 2017.

SMART news agency said on Friday that the Free Syrian Army received a document issued from the Syrian regime intelligence including proves that the shelling at the Hmeimim air base was launched from regime-controlled areas.



Gaza Civil Defense Says Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 29

A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
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Gaza Civil Defense Says Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 29

A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer

Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli airstrikes on Sunday killed at least 29 Palestinians, including six children near a water distribution point.

The attacks came with apparent deadlock in a week of indirect talks in Qatar between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas for a ceasefire in the territory.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that Gaza City was hit by several strikes overnight and in the early morning, killing eight, "including women and children" and wounding others.

An Israeli airstrike hit a family home near the Nuseirat refugee camp, south of Gaza City, resulting in "10 martyrs and several injured", Bassal said.

In central Gaza, six children were among eight people killed when a drone "hit a potable water distribution point in an area for displaced people" in the Nuseirat camp, he added.

Several other people were wounded, he said.

In the territory's south, three people were killed when Israeli jets hit a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in the coastal Al-Mawasi area, according to the civil defense spokesman.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has recently intensified its operations across Gaza, more than 21 months into the war triggered by Hamas's October 2023 attack.

On Saturday, the military said fighter jets had hit more than 35 "Hamas terror targets" around Beit Hanun in northern Gaza.

The vast majority of Gaza's population of more than two million people have been displaced at least once during the war, which has created dire humanitarian conditions in the territory.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency and other parties.