A Pleiades Satellite image from September 20, 2015, shows Russian fighter jets and helicopters at a military base in the government-controlled coastal Syrian city of Latakia. Syria said on September 22, 2015 it had received sophisticated new arms from Russia, including warplanes, and used them against rebels, as signs grew of a major shift in the country's four-year conflict. AFP
Deserted streets and damaged buildings in the central Syrian town of Talbisseh in Homs province, September 30, 2015. Russia confirmed on September 30 that it carried out its first air strike in Syria, near the city of Homs, marking the formal start of Moscow's military intervention. AFP
A video grab from October 1, 2015 shows an image taken from the Russian Defence Ministry's official website, purporting to show an air strike in Syria. President Vladimir Putin on October 1 dismissed claims that Russian air strikes had killed civilians in Syria as 'information warfare' but said Moscow would look into those reports. AFP
A Russian Sukhoi Su-24 bomber takes off from the Hmeimim airbase in the Syrian province of Latakia, October 3, 2015. AFP
A Russian pilot leaving his Sukhoi Su-25 ground attack aircraft at Hmeimim airbase in the Syrian province of Latakia. AFP
Members of the Sunni Committee of Muslim Scholars outside the Russian embassy in the capital Beirut during a protest on October 14, 2015 against Russia's intervention in Syria . AFP
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, with his Syrian counterpart Bashar Al Assad upon the latter's for a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on October 20, 2015. AFP
Russia deployed its S-400 air defence system in Syria, the Russian defence ministry said on November 26, 2015, with the units covering the area around its airbase in coastal Latakia. AFP
About 30,000 Syrians were at the Turkish border after fleeing a Russia-backed regime offensive on the northern region of Aleppo, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on February 8, 2016, as his country faced pressure to open its border. AFP
Russian soldiers on guard as a Russian military convoy passes through a small Syrian village near the city of Hama on May 4, 2016. AFP
Fires after air strikes on the besieged rebel-held town of Daraya, near the capital Damascus, on August 16, 2016. AFP
A member of the White Helmets, a Syrian civil defence volunteer unit, on the rubble of destroyed buildings during a rescue operation in Aleppo after a government forces air strike on the rebel-held neighbourhood of Bustan Al Basha, on October 4, 2016. AFP
Syrian government troops on guard as a bus drives by with people from the evacuated town of Daraya outside the capital Damascus on August 26, 2016. The move was part of a deal agreed between the government and opposition fighters after a four-year army siege. AFP
Members of the UN Security Council meet on December 31, 2016, at the UN headquarters in New York, after unanimously approving a resolution supporting a Russian-Turkish peace initiative for Syria. AFP
