FILE IMAGE: Sputnik/ Iliya Pitalev.
On May 7, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) shot down a Turkish Kargu loitering munition over the northern countryside of Aleppo.
The Syrian Military Capabilities page on Facebook shared a photo showing the wreckage of the munition without specifying where exactly it was shot down or how.
Kargu was designed by Turkey’s STM to carry out reconnaissance and attack missions. The loitering munition has a maximum range of five kilometers and an endurance of 30 minutes. It can be armed with different types of warheads. The munition can operate in a swarm and has AI [artificial intelligence] image processing capabilities with support to facial recognition.
Click to see full-size image. Source: fb.com/القدرات-العسكرية-السورية-٢-106979242002683
The loitering munition was shot down just a few hours after a series of Turkish artillery strikes on the town of al-Zijara in the northern countryside of Syria’s Aleppo. The strikes claimed the lives of two soldiers of the SAA and wounded two others.
Al-Zijara is located in the southern part of Afrin area, within a strip of land jointly controlled by the SAA and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Less than ten days earlier, a Kargu loitering munition crashed in the town of Sewarxa in the southern part of Afrin. The town is also jointly held by the SAA and the SDF.
The Turkish military carried out several attacks on SAA troops in SDF-held areas in northern and northeastern Syria in the last few weeks. These attacks were likely meant to pressure Damascus into withdrawing its troops from the two regions.
Turkey may be planning to launch a large-scale ground operation against the Kurdish-led SDF. This will not be possible as long as the SAA and Russian forces are present in the group’s areas.