The bombers, based at one of Russian’s southern air bases, took off on Tuesday morning, passed through Iranian and Iraqi airspace and delivered concentrated high-explosive ammunition airstrikes on terrorist targets east of the towns of Palmyra and As Sukhnah, and the village of Arak.

@mod_russia#SYRIA A large militants' field camp, 3 ammo depots, 3 tanks, 4 IFVs, 8 automobile vehicles and a great number of personnel were eliminated

All aircraft have successfully returned to home base, the ministry said in a statement.

The Russian military stated that the information on the eliminated targets was acquired over the last several days and confirmed through several intelligence channels.

The US-led international antiterrorist coalition was notified of the airstrikes in advance, the ministry says.

“The strike resulted in the destruction of a large militant field camp, three depots of arms and munitions, three tanks, four infantry combat vehicles and eight vehicles fitted with heavy machine guns, also neutralizing a large number of enemy fighters,” the statement says.

Moscow launched a major anti-terrorist campaign in Syria on September 30, 2015, delivering a major blow to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), Al-Qaeda offshoot Al-Nusra Front and other terrorist groups.

Strategic Tu-22M3 bombers have not been involved in airstrikes against jihadist forces after the Russian military declared the end of the active phase of the counter-terrorist operation in March and a ceasefire came into force.

Although Russia has withdrawn the main part of its forces from Syria, it h