DAMASCUS: An armed group linked to Syria`s new government briefly attacked Russia`s Hmeimim air base in western Syria on Tuesday, a war monitor and a witness have said.

Located in the coastal Latakia province, the Hmeimim base served as a refuge for thousands of people who fled March`s sectarian violence, where over 1,700 mostly Alawi people were killed.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said that `an armed group affiliated with (the new authorities) launched an attack on the base from a nearby village`, with some members managing to infiltrate the runway inside the premises.

The Britain-based monitor also reported `clashes in which medium and heavy machine guns were used, coinciding with the sounding of alarm sirens inside the base`. `The attack started at 7am (0400 GMT) and lasted for an hour,` a witness living near the base said.

The witness heard `the sound of gunfire and shells with the deployment of drones in the air`.

Around 2,500 people are still taking refuge in Hmeimim, according to the Observatory.

Russia`s naval base in Tartus and its air base at Hmeimim are Moscow`s only military outposts outside the former Soviet Union. The overthrow of longtime Syrian ruler and Russian ally Bashar al-Assad in December had cast the future of the bases into doubt with Western countries hoping to pressure Damascus into closing them.

Russia, whose military backing helped Assad cling to power during the civil war, has sought to retain the two bases and a high-level Russian delegation visited Syria in January.

In February, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed to Sharaa over the phone his support for `the unity of Syrian lands and its sovereignty`.-AFP