Israel launches 'large-scale attack' in Syria after fighter jet crashes
By Oliver Holmes
The Guardian
February 10, 2018
JERUSALEM -- Israel has launched what it described as a large-scale air raid in Syria after one of its F-16 fighters crashed while under Syrian anti-aircraft fire.
Twelve sites, including four “Iranian targets” near the Syrian capital, Damascus, were destroyed, according to an Israeli military spokesman, Jonathan Conricus.
The Israeli F-16 was returning on Saturday morning from a raid to destroy Iranian facilities accused of launching a drone into Israel.
Both pilots managed to eject and landed in Israel. One was badly injured. It was not clear if the jet was hit or if the pilots abandoned the plane. Syrian state news claimed its air defences had struck at least two jets.
The jet was part of a mission deep into Syrian territory to destroy what Conricus said was an Iranian drone control facility near the desert city of Palmyra. The drone that entered Israeli airspace was shot down and retrieved, he said.
Saturday’s violence was one of the most severe incidents involving Israel, Iran and Syria during Syria’s seven-year-old civil war. It is believed to be the first time Israel has lost a jet in the conflict.
“The Syrians and Iranians, from our point of view, are playing with fire,” Conricus said. “The event is still ongoing; it is by no means behind us.”
Iran condemned Israel for intercepting one of its drones.
“Reports of downing an Iranian drone flying over Israel and also Iran’s involvement in attacking an Israeli jet are so ridiculous,” state TV quoted Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi as saying.
He added that Iran only provides “military advice” to Syria.
It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties in Syria from Israel’s strikes.
Syrian state media said air defences opened fire on the jets in response to an Israeli act of aggression against a military base on Saturday.
“The Israeli enemy entity at dawn today conducted a new aggression against one of the military bases in the central region. Our air defences confronted it and hit more than one plane,” the unidentified military source said.
The Israeli military denied more than one plane had been hit.
Conricus said Iran was “responsible for this severe violation of Israeli sovereignty”.
“IDF (Israel Defence Forces) has targeted the Iranian control systems in Syria that sent the [unmanned aircraft] into Israeli airspace. Massive Syrian anti-air fire, one F16 crashed in Israel, pilots safe,” Conricus tweetedon Saturday.
Israel’s chief military spokesman, Brig Gen Ronen Manelis, said Israel held Iran directly responsible for the incident.
“This is a serious Iranian attack on Israeli territory. Iran is dragging the region into an adventure in which it doesn’t know how it will end,” he said. “Whoever is responsible for this incident is the one who will pay the price.”
Rocket alert sirens sounded in the Israeli-held Golan Heights and in northern Israel during confrontations, while flights to Israel’s international airport near Tel Aviv were briefly suspended.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, paid a rare visit to the Israel-Syria front on Tuesday and warned Israel’s enemies not to test its resolve. He did not mention by name Iran or its Lebanese militia ally, Hezbollah, both main players in Syria’s civil war.
Netanyahu has been cautioning against any attempt by Iran to deepen its military foothold in Syria or construct missile factories in neighbouring Lebanon.
1 comment:
When your very survival depends on your neighbors being somewhat afraid of you and absolutely convinced you will strike back if provoked this sort of thing happens. When your neighbors say they want to destroy you, it would be wise to take them at their word.
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