Russia, Assad regime carry out joint military drills in Syria

Russian Defence Ministry announced that its forces carried out military drills with Assad regime forces in suburbs of Aleppo, north of Syria, Aram Media reported yesterday.

“The Russian military recently carried out a series of exercises, including the use of Syrian regime tanks in Aleppo governorate,” a statement reported by Aram Media said.

Russian soldiers “corrected the mistakes” of Syrian forces as they use their tanks, pointing out that some of the training needed to be repeated several times, the news site reported.

Russian military official Grigory Lazotkin said Assad’s forces “are not the same as they were” at the start of the war.

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“Today, the combat abilities of these forces are much higher than before … as a result of good training,” Lazotkin said.

In 2015, Russia intervened militarily in Syria as its forces offered military cover for the Assad regime which had been violently cracking down on peaceful anti-government protests.

Since the start of the revolution in 2011, Russia has supported the Assad regime with 16 vetoes at the UN Security Council.