I personally find such reports highly credible, far more so than the typical Russian denials and story changes that inevitably follow. Kommersant was the first to announce the attack, the Russian Ministry of Defence said nothing about it for half a week. The MoD claims it was a minor attack with no damage caused to any planes, but there are at least 3 photographs of damaged planes with markings, background scenery and weather all consistent with the claimed attacks. ... As to no one taking responsibility for the attack itself, that's actually quite smart at this stage; it denies Russia and its allies a chance to abduct the families of the perpetrators for easy retaliation and capture.
Yes, the information was late, usually, the time between the event and the information is shorter. I would accept here the New Year holidays as an excuse. About the pictures, the weather was indeed consistent, but not the damage.
And why aren't your friends that smart usually, why the exception? Usually, they are very proud of everything they destroy and declare that openly, with video proofs, why not in this case? Ok, I can offer you a theory: The usual video proofs have a purpose, namely to show their Western supporters that they have really destroyed something with the weapons given by the CIA, but in this case, there were some special forces working, no need for such proofs.
By that logic, the US made a "profit" in Iraq by killing tens of thousands of terrorists who arguably would have otherwise been pre-occupied with attacking American interests elsewhere.
Except that Saddam Hussein was not a terrorist supporter like the Saudis.
You're also left with a $200-300 billion bill for Syria's reconstruction which the US and Europe are most certainly not going to pay; you can either pay up or be left with your ally buried in its own rubble and dependent on your charity for decades to come, while rebellions will continue to pop up everywhere the populace has been abandoned.
These are not bills but contracts. This part of neocolonial management Russia as well as China have already learned from the West, don't worry.
You'll also need to rebuild Syria's domestic armed forces which will cost you many billions more, unless you plan to leave the country under Iranian control and lose most of your influence there.
First, this is, in fact, the main job what the Russians are doing there. The airbase and the training flights in real combat conditions are important, but what is decisive is the support they give to the Syrian boots on the ground. Which includes delivery of a lot of weapons of mainly Soviet time but upgraded weapons and ammunition (essentially for free, there is even economy of costs for storage and utilization of outdated weapons), but the main problem is education.
It may be speculation, but that "speculation" is based on monitoring the social media posts of Russian mercenaries and soldiers who deploy to Syria, whereas virtually every controversial claim you've ever made here is based on unverifiable speculation supported by mainstream Russian government-approved media.
Except that I have not taken maps here from any mainstream media, neither Russian nor NATO, and the same holds for the other information. With a few exceptions, if the medium is the original source (say, about what Putin has said, one better refers to Putin's speech in the original, which is, of course, usually from government media).
Here is another map about the front where the Tiger forces are attacking and what they have taken yesterday:
