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A still from Russian Defense Ministry video of the launch of Kalibr cruise missiles from Russian Navy ships in the Caspian Sea.
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A model of the Kalibr missile. A nuclear variant, according to Obama administration claims, is in violation of the INF treaty.
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The village of Qiz Qapan, where at least one of the missiles destined for targets in western Syria is believed by some to have fallen.Google Earth
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Shattered glass windows in Qiz Qapan after what officials explained as a drone crash.
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Shattered glass on the ground outside a home in Qiz Qapan.
On Wednesday, four Russian navy ships in the Caspian Sea launched a barrage of 26 cruise missiles against targets Russian officials claimed to be "important militant facilities" of the Islamic State in Syria (ISIS). The missiles flew over northwest Iran and the Kurdish territory of Iraq before striking their targets in Syria, according to a Russian defense ministry spokesperson. However, according to US officials, four of the 26 missiles didn't make the full trip—instead falling in Iran. Both Russia and Iran deny that four missiles fell in Iran.
The strike was conducted with Kalibr 3M-14T cruise missiles (designated by NATO as the SS-N-30A). These inertial-guided, rocket-boosted turbofan cruise missiles have a range of up to 1,500 miles while carrying a 990-pound warhead. The missiles followed a flight path of over 700 miles before striking targets in Syria; Russian defense ministry officials claim they have an accuracy of within three meters. Brought into service in 2012, the Kalibr and its export Klub variants are roughly on par with the US Navy's Tomahawk cruise missile, though the anti-ship variants may be more advanced in many ways—they are capable of a number of terminal maneuvers to defeat ships' defensive systems, including a supersonic dive.
Colonel General Andrey Kartapolov, chief of the Russian General Staff operations directorate, told TASS that the Russian ministry of defense had "reached an agreement in advance with our partners on making the cruise missile strikes." The Russian Defense Ministry worked with Iran and Iraq, a defense ministry spokesperson said, to plan the flight path so that "the missiles traveled only over desolate areas and didn’t pose any danger to civilians."
However, an article posted on a Azerbaijani news site claimed that a "UFO" crashed and exploded on Wednesday in Qiz Qapan, a village in Iran's West Azerbaijan Province on the border with Iraq. The explosion caused by the crash, the report from Oyan News claims, broke windows in twelve housing units, and cracked the walls of some older building s in the village. Two people were injured by shattering glass, and four sheep were later found to have been killed. The local report said that Iranian government officials claimed that the incident was a drone crash.
Listing image by Russian Ministry of Defense
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