Pentagon Believes Russia Is Building a Military Base in Latakia

“We have seen indications in recent days that Russia has moved people and things into the area around Latakia and the air base there,” Navy Captain Jeff Davis reportedly said at an off-camera briefing on Sept. 14, Time magazine reported. The Pentagon claims to have spotted 200 naval infantrymen and twelve army personnel carriers in the area. Latakia is where Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s family has its ancestral home.

Davis repeatedly declined to give a number of troops or types of equipment, saying he could not get into the specifics of intelligence. “We certainly have an estimate [on Russian troop levels in Syria], but I’m not able to share that with you,” he said, Defense One reported.

He did reportedly say the U.S. has not yet seen the arrival of Russian fighter jets, helicopters, or gunships.

He also described the movement as new and ongoing. “This has been a continued movement of things and people into Syria in the area around Latakia,” he said. “That’s been progressing on a daily basis for the past week and a half or so.”

On Monday, Davis seemed to have raised the Defense Department’s level of alarm. “Clearly, one of the concerns we have is deconfliction, so I think it’s going to be important as this manifests itself, whatever this is, that we address the issue of deconfliction,” he said, Defense One reported.

Deconfliction is a military term that refers to the process of avoiding mutual interference.

Unnamed American defense officials provided further details, as reported by Reuters, Fox, and the New York Times. They said that about a half-dozen T-90 tanks (Russia’s most advanced in-service tanks), 15 howitzers, and 35 armored personnel carriers had arrived in Syria, and that U.S. efforts to stop the flights of Russian cargo aircraft to Latakia have largely failed. Over the past week, some 15 flights of giant An-124 cargo planes have landed in Syria.