(ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV - Russia has deployed a large number of warplanes and missile batteries at Latakia in Syria, where Moscow is supporting the regime of Bashar al-Assad, according to a series of satellite photographs to be shown Tuesday by the Israeli Fisher Institute at a conference on space research at Herzlyia.

The photos show S400 missile batteries alongside SA22 missile systems. There are also 30 warplanes on runways.

The Fisher Institute for strategic studies in the air and in space explained in a statement that the photographs it analysed were taken some days ago by the Israeli satellite Eros, which is managed by Isi (ImageSat International).

According to the director of the space research centre Tal Inbar, the S400 batteries are now operational and SA22 Pantsyr batteries have been installed next to them - a reinforcement of defence measures that the Institute speculates may have been arranged for fear of an eventual military escalation against Turkey.

On the day the photos were taken Russian warplanes on the Latakia airport runways included 11 Sukhoi 24 jets, 10 Sukhoi 25s, seven Sukhoi 34s and four Sukhoi 30s while other aircraft based at the facility may have been elsewhere on mission, the Insitute said. The Institute added that Sukhoi 24 engines that seized up during repeated attacks in Syria are having new engines installed at the facility.(ANSAmed).

