MOSCOW, September 22. /TASS/. The Russian Black Sea Fleet's Veliky Novgorod submarine, included in the Russian naval unit currently deployed to the Mediterranean Sea, has fired the Kalibr cruise missiles from underwater, hitting terrorist facilities in Syria, a source in the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday. The source added that all targets had been destroyed.

"The missile strike targeted the recently detected terrorist strongholds, manpower, and armored vehicles, as well as the ammunition depots of the Jabhat al-Nusra terror group (outlawed in Russia) in the Idlib province," the source said. "The missiles flew about 300 kilometers. According to the objective monitoring data, all the targets have been hit," the Defense Ministry added.

The source also said that the missile strike had destroyed important command centers, training facilities and armored vehicles used by terrorist during their recent attack on Russian military police officers in the northern part of the Hama province.

Attack on military police

Head of the Main Operations Department at Russia’s General Staff Colonel General Sergei Rudskoi said on Tuesday that Jabhat al-Nusra militants had launched a large-scale attack on the positions of the Syrian troops in the Idlib de-escalation zone in order to stop the government forces’ offensive in the Deir ez-Zor area. The attack, initiated by the US special services, was repelled.

Rudskoi said that the militants had planned to seize a Russian military police unit deployed to an observation point to control the situation in the de-escalation zone. As a result of the attack, the military police unit comprising 29 officers was encircled and had to repel superior militant forces for several hours.

In order to break the encirclement, a special group was formed, which included members of the Special Operations Forces, military police officers of North Caucasus origin and Syrian commandos. Supported by the Russian warplanes, the group broke the encirclement. During the operation, three Special Operations Forces members suffered wounds.

According to Rudskoi, all the military servicemen who took part in the operation have been recommended for receiving state awards.