Not only research centers but also airfields were among targets U.S., its allies attacked on Apr 14 - Russian Defense Ministry
MOSCOW. April 16 (Interfax) - The Western coalition carried out strikes on research centers and Syrian military sites, including airfields, on Saturday, the Russian military official said.
"The actual targets of the April 14 strikes by the U.S., Britain and France were not only sites in Barzah and Jaramani but also Syrian military sites, including airfields," Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said on Monday.
On Saturday the U.S. and its allies attacked between 3:42 a.m. and 5:10 a.m. Moscow time with sea and air strikes from the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Syrian region of al-Tanf controlled by U.S. troops.
"Radars in the Syrian airspace detected and tracked for the interception of 103 aerial targets," Konashenkov said.
Claims by U.S., British and French militaries that they had only been targeting three Syrian facilities are questionable, he said.
"It means 30-plus cruise missiles and air-to-surface missiles for every target. Such claims raise much skepticism," Konashenkov said.
"None of the Syrian facilities declared as targets were deep or well-secured air defense bunker," Konashenkov said.
"The warhead on the Tomahawk cruise missile, depending on the type, is equivalent to half a ton of TNT," he said. Whatever the coalition's calculus, the three Syrian facilities could be destroyed with no more than ten missiles per target, the general said.
"An examination of the targeted facilities in the Syrian towns of Barza and Jaramani has confirmed these calculations," Konashenkov said.
Still images of the Bazra facility show that the nature of damage resulting from the strike does not match the scale from using three tens of cruise missiles, he said.
"An examination of the grounds of this and the other facilities revealed neither this quantity of ammunition pieces and fragments, nor the corresponding number of craters," Konashenkov said.