After several days of apparent calm and as the Russians continued the process of evacuating their military bases in Syria, a new incident unfolded in Tartus.
Video: Syrians block Russian forces
More specifically, as you can see in the video below, Syrian soldiers appear to have prevented the entry of a Russian military convoy outside the naval base in Tartus, western Syria.
As mentioned earlier, this new heated incident occurred while a major evacuation operation of Russian armed forces from their military facilities in Syrian territory was underway.
"The Syrian Ministry of Defense blocked a Russian military convoy from entering the Tartus base," reported the Turkish news outlet TRT on Tuesday, February 11, adding that "a convoy of 30 vehicles armed with missiles, which had started that morning from the Russian airbase in Khmeimim in the Latakia region, was stopped at a checkpoint in Tartus after an order from the troops following commands from the new Syrian government. After waiting at the checkpoint for eight hours, the convoy was forced to return to the Khmeimim airbase at 5 p.m. local time."
Minutes after the incident, the first videos and photos of the episode appeared on the X platform. The footage shows several Russian military vehicles following the orders of the Syrians, that is, making a U-turn and returning to their base in Khmeimim.
Indeed, the convoy appeared to consist of Russian military trucks carrying missiles in their cargo beds.
The reason why the new Syrian government issued the order to prohibit the evacuation of these Russian missiles remains unknown. Until now, hundreds of Russian military equipment units had successfully passed through Syrian checkpoints, reaching the port of Tartus from where they were permanently departing from Syria.
This new episode raises many questions, but it may be related to the indecisiveness of the new Syrian government regarding whether the continued presence of Russian military forces in its territory is beneficial for Damascus.
"The Minister of Defense of the transitional Syrian government, Murhaf Abu Kasra, stated that the presence of Russian forces in Syria will depend on the benefits they provide to the country," added the Turkish outlet.
