Moscow: A Russian warship and submarine fired four cruise missiles from the Mediterranean at Islamic State (IS) targets near the Syrian city of Palmyra, the Russian defence ministry said on Wednesday.
The strike, which Russian news agencies said was the first of its kind since November, was carried out by the frigate Admiral Essen and the submarine Krasnodar, and targeted militants and equipment in an area east of Palmyra.
The defence ministry said the hardware and forces struck had previously been deployed by IS in Raqqa.
“All targets were destroyed,” it said in a statement.
Russia had warned the US, Turkey and Israel before launching the missiles, the ministry said.
It did not say when the strike took place, but Russian news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that defence minister Sergei Shoigu had personally told President Vladimir Putin about the military action late on Tuesday.
The last time Russia fired Kalibr cruise missiles from its ships at militant targets in Syria was in November last year, the RIA news agency said.
Separately, photographs published on Wednesday by Turkish bloggers for their online Bosphorus Naval News project showed a Russian Syria-bound ship passing through the Bosphorus carrying a consignment of military trucks.
