Russian warships have left Moscow's Tartus base on the Syrian coast and some of them have dropped anchor in the sea since the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by rebels forces. This is shown by satellite images, reports "Reuters".
An image taken on December 9 by Planet Labs shows at least three vessels from Russia's Mediterranean fleet, including two guided-missile frigates and an oil tanker, docked about 13 km northwest of Tartus. The rest of the fleet is not located on the satellite images.
Syrian rebels captured the capital Damascus on Sunday in a lightning offensive that forced Assad to flee to Russia after a 13-year civil war and 54 years of autocratic rule by his family.
Moscow, which has been an ally of the Assad regime for decades, is now trying to strike a deal with the rebels to ensure the safety of two strategically important military bases.
Russia has a large air force base in the coastal city of Latakia, as well as a naval base in Tartus.
The Tartus base is Russia's only Mediterranean hub for repairs and resupply, and Moscow uses Syria as a staging post to ferry its military contractors to and from Africa.
Previously, Russia had five ships and one submarine in Tartus.
A satellite photo taken on December 5 by BlackSky shows all six vessels at the base.
Satellite images from December 9, however, confirm earlier reports by Russian military blogger "Ribar" that warships have left Tartus and taken up a position off the coast for security reasons.
The fleet left the naval base sometime between December 6 and 9, satellite images show.