Book excerpt: The Inside Story of Putin's Military Intervention in the Syrian War Russia's intervention in Syria in September 2015 caught the world by surprise. Since then Russian bombers, fighter jets, drones, warships and special forces troops have helped turn the tide of the brutal Syria civil war in favour Bashar al-Assad's government in Damascus. As the war enters its endgame, this book looks at how the Russian intervention unfolded, and its implications in the Middle East and further afield. Drawing on a wide array of sources - including satellite imagery of Russian forces in Syria, as well as live online monitoring of Russian, Syrian and Iranian aircraft and ship movements - Operation Aleppo gives an unprecedented insight into the most ambitious Russian military campaign since the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in the 1980s.