Which ships were sent to syria

Russia has justified its presence in Syria by saying it is fighting Islamic State and other extremist groups, Galeeva says in a paper published by the Middle East Institute, a U. The Biden administration has indicated it is ready to re-engage in the Middle East, repair multilateral coalitions and reassert its leadership role in the region. In February the U.

The Pentagon said the strike was ordered in response to attacks against U. Officials tell VOA they are shaping policy to try to balance U.

An early Syria test for the Biden administration is likely in July over the delivery of United Nations aid to millions of Syrians sheltering in the northwest province of Idlib, which is not controlled by the Syrian government, The Wall Street Journal reported this week.

Russia has threatened to block international aid flowing into Idlib via the border crossing between Syria and Turkey at Bab al-Hawa, saying all aid should be distributed from areas controlled by the Assad government. The Syrian government has been bracing for a possible U. Trump and May spoke on the phone Thursday evening to discuss how they would respond to the suspected attack.

Syrian officials, and their Russian allies, have repeatedly denied being behind the suspect chemical attack — even going so far as to claim it was orchestrated by the U. Moscow has threatened to retaliate for any strikes on Syrian government targets. Write to Kate Samuelson at kate. World Syria The Biggest U. The main difference between the two groups are their capabilities. They were accompanied by two destroyers and several other ships.

However, Kuznetsov and Peter the Great are not armed with Kalibr missiles. When the Kuznetsov battle group deployed to Syria in late , it did so as Washington was again debating the merits of strikes on Syria. That group was a better deterrent — for no other reason than Peter the Great was in theater. The Russian battlecruiser is designed to pound American carriers from a distance.

The Saratov looked loaded when it passed the strait on Thursday going south toward Syria. Its load line was visibly lower than on March 14 when it was photographed going the other way, toward Russia. At the same time, two warships - the Alexander Otrakovsky and the Minsk - and the Dvinitsa, an auxiliary vessel, were photographed by Turkish bloggers passing the Bosphorus en route back to Russia.

At least two of the returning ships, the Alexander Otrakovsky and the Dvinitsa, looked unloaded on their way back. Photographs show that the Otrakovsky, a large landing ship, sat higher in the water on its return to Russia compared to March 2 when it crossed the strait in the other direction.

It was not clear if it carried troops or equipment. The load line of the Dvinitsa was also high above the water when it was photographed in the Bosphorus on March 20 on its way back to Russia. It seems unlikely that Russian troops or equipment were on board any of the returning ships.