Alwaght- A military blogger specializing in plane spotting says he found the likely route of Syria’s Bashar Assad's visit to Moscow from Syria evading terrorists and an intricate US Spy network in the region.
According to Sputnik news, the probable route of Syrian President Bashar Assad's visit to Moscow, has been revealed by a military aviation plane spotter using data from airplane tracker FlightRadar24.
Assad's visit to Moscow was conducted in secrecy and only officially announced after the Syrian president returned to Damascus. The visit was Assad's first trip abroad since Syria's armed conflict began in 2011.
The flight was conducted in complete secrecy, as security concerns regarding the transportation of a head of state could have been intercepted at a low altitude in Damascus, where terrorist groups including ISIS maintain a presence. Over Iraq, Assad's plane could have been in danger of interception by planes of the US-led coalition, and tracking of the plane could have revealed that he was no longer in the country.
The blogger says that one plane, Rossiya Airlines' government plane Il-62M with registration RA-86539 likely took Assad from Latakia's Hmeymim air base (which doubles as Basel Al Assad International Airport) to Moscow. The plane was first spotted leaving Moscow's Chkalovsky airfield before turning off its transponder on October 20. The plane was then briefly spotted the next morning over the Caspian Sea slightly north of Iran, with no call sign, and then Moscow-bound over Russia.
Assad likely returned to Syria on another government Il-62M, with registration number 86559, which flew with its transponder turned on for the duration of the entire trip on Tuesday evening, but no call sign. The plane then returned to Russia with official call sign RFF7094.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that during the meeting the Syrian president informed the Russian leader about the plans of government forces in the fight against terrorists in the Middle Easter country. “Yesterday evening Syrian President Bashar Assad arrived in Moscow for a working visit,” Peskov said. The Syrian president reportedly returned to his home country earlier on Wednesday.