Trump’s “Smart” Missiles In Syria: Summing Up Evidence And Numbers Provided By Russia

Thursday, 26 April 2018

Trump’s “Smart” Missiles In Syria: Summing Up Evidence And Numbers Provided By Russia

25.04.2018

On April 25, the Russian Defense Ministry held a press briefing providing more details on the April 14 cruise missile strike carried out by the US, the UK and France on Syria.

The Russian military revealed wreckage of the intercepted missiles and showed at least one unexploded Tamahawk cruise missile. It also added that two unexploded missiles (a Tomahawk and a high-accuracy air-launched missile) had been delivered to Russia from Syria. FULL TRANSCRIPT OF PRESS BRIEFING

According to the April 25 press briefing by the Russian military:

only 22 US, French, British missiles hit their targets;
46 missiles were intercepted by Syrian air defense systems covering the capital of Syria and Duvali, Dumayr, Blai, and Mazzeh nearby airfields;
20 missiles were intercepted in three areas of the responsibility zone of air defense of Homs;
a part of the missiles failed to reach their targets by different, apparently technical, reasons.

SF recalls that according to the Pentagon’s version of the events the US, the UK and France launched 105 missiles on Syria and all of them hit their targets.

Thus, if the Russian military’s statement is true, we have the following picture:

105 missiles launched (according to the Pentagon)
66 missiles intercepted (according to the Russian military)
22 missiles hit their targets (according to the Russian military)
2 unexploded missiles were delivered to moscow (according to the Russian military)
15 missiles did not reach their targets (according to the Russian military)

It’s important to note that according to an initial claim by the Russian military made on April 14 the Syrian Air Defense Forces had intercepted 71 missiles launched by the US-led bloc. [MORE ABOUT THIS HERE: “SUMMING UP RESULTS OF US-UK-FRANCE STRIKE ON SYRIA: STATEMENTS, FACTS AND SPECULATIONS”]

The April 25 briefing provided the updated numbers. The pictures below are translated slides and photos showed by the Russian military during the press briefing:

Trump's "Smart" Missiles In Syria: Summing Up Evidence And Numbers Provided By Russia

Click to see the full-size image

In response to the Russian military’s press briefing, the Pentagon denied that any missiles involved in the April 14 strike failed or weere captured in Syria. Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon told Business Insider “both claims are completely and totally untrue.”

CNBC provided more detailed comments from Pahon on the issue:

“This is another example of the Russian disinformation campaign to distract attention from their moral complicity to the Assad Regime’s atrocities and the civilian carnage in western Syria,” Pahon wrote in an email. “The claims … regarding our target selection are absurd, as is the rest of the (TASS) article. On the Tomahawk, we have seen no proof, other than statements made to Russian state-owned media, that their claims are true. This is likely another smoke screen of propaganda to distract from the real issue at hand — the murder of innocent civilians by a murderous regime propped up by Russian backing.”

SF recalls that, according to the Pentagon, the 105 launched missiles hit the following targets:

76 missiles – “Barzah Research and Development Center”
22 missiles – “Him Shinshar Chemical Weapons Storage Site”
7 missiles – “Him Shinshar CW Bunker”

While it’s up to the Pentagon to claim that Russia released no evidence confirming the missile interceptions, it’s interesting to note that the Pentagon has released no videos showing the moment of the missile strike on the targets in Syria. The only proof released by the US is the following satellite imagery:

Click to see the full-size image

MORE PHOTOS OF TRUMP’S “SMART” MISSILES INTERCEPTED IN SYRIA

Earlier on April 25, the Russian Defense Ministry held a press conference showing US President Donald Trump’s “smart” missiles intercepted in Syria. Two unexploded missiles were even delivered to Russia from Syria, according to the military. MORE DETAILS

Here you can find more photos showing the wreckage of the intercepted missiles.

More Photos Of Trump's "Smart" Missiles Intercepted In Syria

Click to see the full-size image

Parts of the alleged Tomahawk cruise missile circulating in the Russian media:

Click to see the full-size image

UPDATE: According to the April 25 press briefing by the Russian military:

– only 22 US, French, British missiles hit their targets;

– 46 missiles were intercepted by the Syrian Air Defense Forces;

– the rest of the missiles failed to reach their targets by different, apparently technical, reasons.

On April 25, the chief of the Russian General Staff’s main operations directorate Colonel-General Sergey Rudskoy held a press briefing debunking the Pentagon’s version of the April 14 missile strike on Syria.

During the press briefing, the colonel-general showed wreckage of the intercepted missiles and said that one unexploded Tomahawk cruise missile and one high accuracy air-launched missile launched by the US-led bloc had been delivered to Russia.

He added that according to the updated data only 22 missile hits on targets in Syria can be confirmed.

Earlier the Pentagon said that the US, the UK and France had launched 105 missiles and all of them had hit their targets in Syria.

The Russian military says that 71 missiles were intercepted by the Syrian Air Defense Forces.