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| Israeli airstrike on Damascus endangered civilian flight with 172 passengers on board – Russian Defense Ministry | Israeli airstrike on Damascus endangered civilian flight with 172 passengers on board – Russian Defense Ministry |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| A surprise Israeli raid against Damascus suburbs early Thursday activated Syrian air defenses and put a civilian aircraft in serious danger, forcing it to divert to a Russian airbase in Khmeimim, Russian Defense Ministry said. | |
| The civil Airbus-320, enroute from Tehran to the Syrian capital, was forced to make the emergency landing following an Israeli missile attack, the ministry said, denouncing Israeli pilots' “common practice” of using civilian aircraft as a “shield.” | |
| The aircraft was due to land at the Damascus International Airport, but was unable to do so as Syrian air defense systems engaged hostile targets. The surprise attack took place around 2am local time, with four Israeli F-16s firing at least eight air-to-surface missiles from outside of Syrian airspace. | |
| Tel Aviv is perfectly aware of civilian flight routes and air activity around Damascus, day and night, and such reckless missions prove that Israeli strategists could not care less about possible civilian casualties, Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov argued. | Tel Aviv is perfectly aware of civilian flight routes and air activity around Damascus, day and night, and such reckless missions prove that Israeli strategists could not care less about possible civilian casualties, Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov argued. |
| “Only due to timely actions of the Damascus airport dispatchers and the efficient operation of the automated air traffic control system, the Airbus-320 managed to… successfully land at the closest alternative airfield,” Konashenkov added. | “Only due to timely actions of the Damascus airport dispatchers and the efficient operation of the automated air traffic control system, the Airbus-320 managed to… successfully land at the closest alternative airfield,” Konashenkov added. |
| That was not the first time Israeli fighter jets have endangered civilian craft over Syria, with Moscow criticizing Tel Aviv for putting two passenger flights in danger during an air raid in 2018. Israel has flown hundreds of similar bombing raids on Syria throughout the country’s civil war, claiming to be hitting “legitimate Iranian targets.” | |
| During a tense moment in early January after a series of Iranian strikes on US military positions in Iraq – retaliation for the assassination of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani – Tehran accidentally shot down a Ukrainian airliner, killing all 176 people on board. Iran quickly came clean about the incident and apologized, admitting it made a mistake in a time of crisis, fearing an imminent counter-attack from US warplanes. | |
| In another somewhat similar accident in 2018, Syria’s air defenses shot down a Russian IL-20 military craft after Israeli F-16 pilots used it as cover. The deadly shootdown, which killed the plane’s 15-man crew, prompted Moscow to furnish the country with its S-300 missile defense system, which Damascus however has yet to use against any Israeli military aircraft. | |
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