Israeli military aircraft carried out a series of powerful airstrikes on military targets in the Syrian port city of Tartus, home to an important Russian naval base and ship repair facility, on the night of 15-16 December.

Concurrently, marine traffic monitors show a Vladivostok-bound cargo ship, Ursa Major, previously registered as Sparta III and visually matching the picture published by HUR, moving at a very low speed of little over 1 knot in the open sea between Spain and Algeria.

The images show new activity at the Hmeimim Air Base over the past few days as Russia's military footprint in Syria remains in limbo.

Russia has begun withdrawing a large amount of military equipment and troops from Syria following the ouster of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, according to two US officials and a western official familiar with the intelligence.

The transfer marks the end of an era when Russia played an arguably oversized role in determining which countries could operate in Syria’s contested airspace.

Israel launched a series of airstrikes in Syria's coastal Tartus region late Sunday, marking the most intense bombardment in the area since 2012, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Israel said it had wiped out the vast majority of the Syrian military's assets, including huge chunks of its air-defense network.

Russia's military presence at two key bases in Syria fell into uncertainty after the Assad regime fell last weekend.

Two African states are frustrating Moscow's efforts to establish a stronger military presence in the continent following the fall of Assad.

Russia used the air base in Hmeimim and naval base at Tartus to support Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s 13-year civil war. But now, Assad is gone.

Russia has withdrawn the majority of its forces from Syria, weeks after the fall of Bashar al-Assad...