The previous New Year's Eve attack was carried out by a small squad of insurgents armed with mortars who were able to kill two Russian servicemen while damaging up to seven aircraft at Khmeimim Airbase outside of Latakia, Syria and constitutes the single largest loss of Russian military hardware throughout the Syria campaign.

This was followed by a January 6 coordinated attack on the base involving 13 heavily armed drones which captured headlines this week as Russian defense officials, including President Putin himself, said the militants must have had outside help or state sponsorship, given the sophistication of the operation and presence of advanced satellite and weapons technology the UAVs were outfitted with.

In response to both attacks, Russian special forces units were immediately mobilized and conducted targeted operations based on intelligence which identified the location of the initial mortar attacks. The Russian Defense Ministry indicated the full scope of its intelligence and special ops resources were brought to bear for the operation.