Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War

A Russian military jet carrying 14 servicemen vanished from radar over the Mediterranean Sea late Monday as Syria came under attack by Israeli missiles, the defence ministry said.

Russia's defense ministry said early on Tuesday that one if its military aircraft with 14 people on board disappeared from radar screens over Syria at the same time that Israeli and French forces were mounting aerial attacks on targets in Syria.

US defense authorities and NATO are monitoring the presence of over a dozen Russian warships in the Eastern Mediterranean, CNN has reported, adding that allied vessels from the Netherlands, Canada, Greece and Spain have been keeping an eye on their Russian counterparts.

Iran, Russia and Turkey were unable to overcome their differences at a Tehran summit on Friday as they held talks on an imminent offensive against the last rebel stronghold in Syria, amid warnings from the international community of a looming humanitarian disaster.

The MoD said that two Su-34 warplanes "wiped out a workshop of Jabhat al-Nusra where the militants were making attack drones and kept explosives in store," while a Su-35S "eliminated a warehouse of portable anti-aircraft missiles," TASS is reporting.

Turkish defense minister and his Russian counterpart spoke over the phone about regional security, according to a Turkish ministerial source on Aug. 30.

The UN Security Council has scheduled an emergency meeting at Russia's request on the "threat to international peace" from possible air strikes on Syria by the United States and its allies.

A Russian transport plane has crashed in Syria killing all 26 passengers and six crew members believed to have been on board, the defence ministry says, quoted by BBC. 

The An-26 plane crashed during landing at Hmeimim airbase, near the Syrian coastal city of Latakia, the ministry is quoted as saying by Russian media.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has vowed to investigate an attack involving Russian citizens on American-allied forces in Syria but stopped short of accusing Moscow of orchestrating the assault.

The Russian Defense Ministry said this in a statement on Wednesday, TASS reported.