Air Strikes by SyAAF and VKS, 7 April 2017
Out of curiosity, and because I’m going to lack the time to prepare any of reviews for the next few days, here a short write-up of what was going on this morning. It is particularly interesting to see how is the SyAAF going to react to the TLAM-strike from US Navy warships of the last night.
The Russians launched a total of 20 air strikes between 00.00 and 01.00hrs, while one L-39 launched from Hama around 01.47hrs. There followed the usual nocturnal break — during which the US TLAM strike hit Shayrat AB (at 04.40hrs local time).
The flying otherwise continued at normal pace: a helicopter each launched from Hama at 07.57 and 08.04, and then the Russians launched six air strikes between 08.08–09.00.
Contrary to what might be expected, Assadists didn’t stop flying then. On the contrary, in clear demonstration of defiance, they launched another helicopter from Hama at 09.16, one Su-22 from Kweres at 09.29 (this hit the Sarqib area). Two additional helicopters and three MiG-21s took off from Hama by 10.00hrs, three additional helicopters by 10.40, while Russians meanwhile launched 3–4 air strikes from Hmemmem too, and bombed Kfar Nabl around 11.00hrs.
A Su-22 lifted off Dmeyr AB at 11.07 and bombed the Khan Sheykhoun area, as did another helicopter from Hama, about 15 minutes later. I.e. by the noon, the VKS flew 38 sorties, while the Assadists still managed a total of 16 — although most of these (10) by helicopters from Hama.
Latamina and Kfar Zita were hit by three Russian fighter-bombers and five Assadist helicopters around 12.30hrs. By 13.57hrs, three additional helicopters were launched from Hama, and two L-39s from Kweres, while the Russians flew at least five other air strikes. Targeted were Ma’arat an-Nauman, but also Khan Sheykhoun area again.
It was around this time that the flying operations from Hama were interrupted by a BM-21 strike launched by Jaysh an-Nasr.
Overall, it seems that Shayrat AB is out of service this morning, and Assadists are attempting to compensate by helicopter ops from Hama. Otherwise, their flying activity is minimal, while that of Russians is ‘diminished’ (total of ‘only’ 45 VKS air strikes by now today).
