Russia Bombs Syrian Militants From Iran

Russia’s military for the first time has launched airstrikes against Syrian targets from a base inside Iran. The move early Tuesday expanded Moscow’s campaign to fight the Islamic State terror group in Syria, the Russian defense ministry said. Until now, Russia had never used any other nation’s territory in the Middle East for its operations in Syria. The long-range bombers and fighter bombers were launched from Hamadan air base, the ministry said. The deployment allowed Russian pilots to cut flight times to Syria by 60 percent, in addition to increasing the number of bombs they could carry, Russian media said.