On January 9, 2021, Russian aerospace forces carried out airstrikes and destroyed an oil tanker heading towards Turkey, Russia’s AviaPro news agency reported. Two Russian agencies claimed two different things during this incident. One claimed that fighter jet was used for airstrikes whereas another agency claimed that unmanned aerial vehicles were used.

After receiving the planned transfer about oil tankers traveling from Syria to Turkey, Russia attacked it. Russian fighters’ activity in the air that night was high, more than usual, sources in Sentry Syria claimed.

Video filmed minutes after the attack is viral over social media. Intense fires engulfing the convoy after the attack is shown in the video. Some claim that only three tankers of the whole convoy were damaged whereas according to some entire convoy was destroyed. The attack took place just after the convoy entered Turkey.

According to Avipro, Shortly after leaving the city of Al-Bab, fighter jets carried out the Russian assault. The city is located in the province of Aleppo and is under the control of Turkish military rule since 2017. It is 30km and 40km away from Turkey's border and Aleppo respectively.

It is estimated that Russia responded to the destruction of a Russian military base located in Tell Tamer, Aleppo province.

 Russian military base located in Tell Tamer, Aleppo province, was partially destroyed by Turkish artillery fire. The cause was “another mistake” by the Turkish military, which blundered the Syrian democratic forces’ positions.

Although the strikes on the Russian military base were not intentional, Russia has maintained consistency over Syria in its military operation.  Russia always responds to every attack with a retaliatory air strike within 24 hours.

The attack over oil convey can be interpreted as an attempt of Russia to stop the import of Syrian oil from the country and respond to the attack over the Russian military base.