convoys in the damascus area moving around more than normal. it s unclear if that s directly related to what the president has been tweeting. we re getting reports of the syrian air force removing jets from some air bases, presumably also in anticipation of possible u.s. strikes. the syrian government has also reacted, they re calling the president s language reckless saying it s a threat to international peace and stability. and of course, the russians themselves have reacted. they re not only saying they ll target missiles flying towards syria, and target the bases where they re fired from, potentially meaning u.s. ships and planes, as well. being on the ground 20 times in syria, including with the russian military, and they have a lot more hardware here in syria that many people know about. also surface-to-air missile systems and a lot of ships in the mediterranean, as well. fred pleitgen on the ground in damascus. fred, stay safe.
isis, turks against the kurds. does this embolden the rebels now that the u.s. has skin in the game? you ve seen statements by the rebels that, yes, this is something they ve been waiting for. that doesn t mean we take the next step. it does mean that perhaps one of the most hideous, worst types of arsenals that assad has probably won t be used again. that dynamic alone has changed, i think. if they are used again, the united states will have to and must strike and that means it will strike the rest of the aircraft that are there. and there s russians that are protecting those air fields with their surface-to-air missile systems. so i think there s a dynamic here that only diplomacy is going to resolve this. it may resolve it to where the rebels may not like the outcome but at least we have an opportunity with this strike to work hard with turkey, with
russians were warned through the normal lines of decon flix that these air strikes were incoming. and so, that probably means that they were able to get their personnel and indeed the syrian personnel, i expect that they were working in conjunction with, out of the way, as it were. but what s really interesting to me is that russia has one of the world s most sophisticated surface to air missile systems in place and presumably operational, as well, inside syria. it s s-400 system, it s got s-300s, as well. both of those systems are fully capable of intercepting cruise missiles, if they choose to do so. and i think it s very interesting that these interceptors, these surface to air missile systems were not used to try to intervene and try to protect this air base in any way. and so, that implies a degree of tacit russian consent for
possibility of more terrorist attacks. he said that the russians who are work gt right now in syria and in libya and yemen, the russian nation stands fully behind them. we will protect you. and he said of the russian forces right now in syria, who are fighting, he said rebels and terrorists, that they are heros. that he chose to go there but he salutes them. he s now positioned more sophisticated surface to air missile systems in syria to prevent threat from hijacked aircraft. so the narrative from putin does seem in some ways to prepare the country for an increase level of terror threat. so while on the one hand not being clear at all about how this plane came down. on the other hand you have a sort of a slow narrative behind the scenes almost to prepare people for perhaps worst to come. nick robertson from
the separatists had a system like this as early as monday, july 14th. u.s. intelligence has identified a facility inside of russia where rebel fighters have been trained on surface-to-air missile systems. more than a dozen aircraft have been shot down in the last few months. that s more than previously acknowledged. could the ukrainians have shot down the commercial airliner? the u.s. says no. ukraine has the same weapons system used in this case but none were in the area at the time. barbara starr, cnn, the pentagon. petro poroshenko left the country for only six weeks. he told christiane amanpour has