US Navy aircraft conducted reconnaissance near Russian military bases in Syria
Seven US Navy military aircraft conducted reconnaissance in the eastern Mediterranean near the coast of Syria, where the Russian Hmeymim airbase and the Russian Navy's logistics base in Tartus are located. This is evidenced by Mil Radar's data on military aviation flights.
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| Mil Radar military aviation flight monitoring data. |
All six US Navy P-8A Poseidon anti-submarine patrol aircraft departed from Sigonella air base on the Italian island of Sicily, and one USS EP-3E Aries II aircraft flew from a base in Greece.
Earlier, the US television channel CNBC reported, citing its own sources, that the US was considering eight facilities as targets for an attack in Syria.
The list of targets included two military airports, a research center and a business believed to be involved in the production of chemical weapons.
On April 11, US President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter that Russia should be prepared to shoot down the "good, new, and smart" missiles that the US will fire at Syria.
On the same day, Secretary of Defense James Mattis said that the US was still assessing evidence of a chemical attack in Syria, but he noted that the US military was ready to "provide appropriate military options, as determined by the president."
Previously, the West accused Damascus of carrying out a "chemical attack" in the city of Douma in Eastern Ghouta, Syria.
Moscow and Damascus firmly denied the information about "discovering a chlorine bomb" that was apparently "used by the Syrian army".
