CHELYABINSK, March 17. /TASS/. The first group of Sukhoi-24M front-line bombers has returned home from Syria to land at an air base near Chelyabinsk, a TASS correspondent reports.

The planes flew over the airfield in a tight formation. The air pilots in this way greeted their fellow servicemen and relatives who gathered for the welcome ceremony.

The pilots were greeted by the chief of the tactical aviation’s combat training, Major General Oleg Makovetsky and deputy commander of the Central Military District Major-General Sergey Poletuchy.

Earlier, the Central Military District’s press-service said that the three front-line bombers that had left the Hmeimim airfield in Syria were due to land at the Shagol airdrome on Thursday morning.

The main part of the Russian air group has been leaving Syria since March 15. Russian President Vladimir Putin last Monday said that the air group had coped with its tasks by and large.

The next day Deputy Defense Minister Nikolay Pankov declared that more strikes against terrorists were due.

Russia joined the operation against the terrorists in Syria on September 30 last year in response to a request from Syrian President Bashar Assad.