Putin Hopes “There Will Be No Need To Nuke” The Islamic State
Earlier today, in a clear advance notice to the French and US navies which are both set to arrive just off the coast of Syria in the coming weeks, Russia for the first time targeted Islamic State targets in Syria with Kalibr land-attack cruise missiles launched from a submarine in the Mediterranean Sea off the Syrian coastline, according to Russia’s Defense Minister.
According to RT, the 3M-54 Kalibr missiles were launched from the Kilo-class diesel-electric submarine “Rostov-on-Don”, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.
While as reported here before, Russian warships based in the Caspian and Mediterranean seas had launched similar missiles targeting ISIS positions in late November, this was the first time that Russia has targeted IS in Syria from a submarine.
The submarine cruise missile launch and subsequent strikes are shown in the clip below:
According to a Kremlin transcript of the conversation, Shoigu told Putin that the missiles successfully targeted two major terrorist positions in the territory of Raqqa, adding that “we can say with absolute confidence that significant damage has been inflicted upon ammunition warehouses and a mine production plant, as well as the oil infrastructure.”
In addition to the submarine, a Russian Ministry of Defense source revealed that the Rostov-on-Don, equipped with modern Russian Kalibr cruise missiles, had appeared near the Syrian coast. Additionally, just before the USS Harry S. Truman carrier arrives, the Russian cruiser Varyag, which is currently off India’s coast for Exercise Indra till Dec. 12, will set sail for the Mediterranean to replace the cruiser Moskva.
However, what was most notable in today’s update by the Russian defense ministry was neither the news about the sub, or the second ship deployment, but what Putin told Shoigu during their conversation according to the Kremlin’s transcript. Which is as follows:
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