Pictures: Tank-carrying Russian naval ship en-route to Syria

A large Russian Navy landing ship with the potential to carry a military company worth of main battle tanks has been spotted en-route to Syria after it transited the Bosphorus Strait from the Black Sea towards the eastern Mediterranean.
The destination of the military reinforcement-carrying vessel has been identified by online public sea tracking sources as Syria’s port city of Tartus.
The vessel has been identified as a the Azov 151, a Ropucha-class landing ship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s 197th Landing Brigade. At maximum practical load, the logistical watercraft can carry ten main battle tanks or twelve infantry fighting vehicles.
Since its military intervention in Syria in late 2015, Russia has reinforced the Syrian Army via a combination of government-owned container ships and military landing ships such as the Azov 151.
The Azov 151’s passage through the Bosphorus Strait was captured on camera by Turkish-based ship spotter Yörük Işık‏ (@YorukIsik on Twitter) who released the following images of the ship.