Terror threat

Al Qaeda brigade claims attack on Russian forces in Syria

Katibat al Tawhid wal Jihad (KTJ), a mainly Uzbek group that formally pledged allegiance to Al Nusrah Front on September 29, has claimed responsibility for an attack on the “Russian infidels” in the Latakia province. The claim could not be independently verified.

In a statement released on its official website, KTJ claims that its “rocket attacks” caused “serious damage” to Bashar al Assad’s regime and the “Russian infidels” at the Hamim military airbase. KTJ’s statement says the rockets were launched by the “jihadist unity in northwest Syria,” a reference to its formal merger with Al Nusrah, and that the “mujahideen” had carried out “several attacks” on the airbase with Grad rockets in the past.

In mid-September, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported “the arrival of warplanes loaded [with] military equipment as well as hundreds of Russian military advisers, experts and technicians” at the Hamim airbase.