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Version 2 Version 3
Passenger Plane Was Nearly Shot Down in Syria, Russia Says Passenger Plane Drew Fire in Syria, Russia Says
(about 2 hours later)
BEIRUT, Lebanon — A passenger plane with 172 people aboard made an emergency landing at a Russian military base in Syria on Thursday after drawing fire from Syrian air defenses in the aftermath of Israeli airstrikes in the area, Russian state news agencies reported on Friday. BEIRUT, Lebanon — A passenger plane with 172 people aboard made an emergency landing at a Russian military base in Syria on Thursday after drawing fire from Syrian air defenses in the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike in the area, Russian state news agencies reported on Friday.
A spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, blamed Israel for the near miss, accusing the Israeli military of habitually using civilian aircraft to stop Syrian air defenses from retaliating against its strikes, Interfax reported. A spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Gen. Igor Konashenkov, blamed Israel for the near miss, accusing its military of habitually using civilian aircraft to “cover” its airstrikes and “block” Syrian air defenses from retaliating.
“The Israeli general staff carries out such operations using civilian, passenger airplanes as cover or to block answering fire from the Syrian antiaircraft forces,” Mr. Konashenkov said in a statement released to Russian news outlets. The tactic, he said, “is a characteristic of the Israeli air force.” Israel has not acknowledged the airstrike, and its foreign ministry declined to comment on the Russian statement.
The passenger plane, an Airbus A320, was en route to Damascus from Tehran early Thursday when it came under fire, Interfax reported Mr. Konashenkov as saying. Mr. Konashenkov said the attack was meant for Israeli fighter jets that had struck the outskirts of Damascus with eight surface-to-air missiles around the same time, just after 2 a.m. The passenger plane, an Airbus A320, was en route to Damascus from Tehran early Thursday when the encounter took place, Gen. Konashenkov said in a statement to Tass and other Russian news outlets. Gen. Konashenkov said the Syrian air defense forces were responding to Israeli fighter jets that had struck the outskirts of Damascus with surface-to-air missiles around the same time, just after 2 a.m.
The Israeli jets fired from a standoff distance, without entering Syrian airspace, he said. Israel has repeatedly bombed Syria in recent years in a bid to rout Iranian forces from Syria, where Tehran is entrenched as a military ally and political patron of President Bashar al-Assad.
Israel has repeatedly bombed Syria in recent years, striking Iranian targets in a bid to rout Iranian forces from Syria, where Tehran is entrenched as a military ally and political patron to President Bashar al-Assad’s military. Both Russia and Iran have backed the Syrian government with financing, militias and airstrikes during the Syrian civil war, now in its ninth year. But neither country has retaliated against Israel.
Both Russia and Iran have backed the Syrian government with financing, militia troops and airstrikes during the Syrian civil war, now in its ninth year. But neither country has retaliated against Israel, despite its open acknowledgment of its airstrikes inside Syria. The plane was caught in antiaircraft missile and artillery fire as it descended toward Damascus International Airport, according to Gen. Konashenkov, but managed to land at Hmeimim Air Base, a Russian-controlled site in northwest Syria.
The plane was caught in antiaircraft missile and artillery fire as it descended toward Damascus International Airport, according to Mr. Konashenkov, but managed to land at Hmeimim Air Base, a Russian controlled site in northwest Syria. The Russian report of a near miss seemed to highlight, yet again, the risks to civilian airplanes from the proliferation of powerful antiaircraft missiles in conflicts around the world. It came just a month after Iranian forces unintentionally shot down a Ukraine International Airlines passenger plane soon after it took off from Tehran, killing all 176 people on board.
“Only thanks to the quick action of the dispatchers in Damascus and the effective work of automated systems for controlling air traffic was it possible to direct the Airbus out of the strike zone,” he said. But Syrian state media did not back up the Russian report on Friday, remaining silent about the prior day’s events.
The Interfax report did not say whether anyone was injured, and Syrian state media did not carry reports on the events on Friday. And a website that tracks airplane transponders showed the plane departed from Najaf, Iraq, not Tehran. Cham Wings Airlines, an airline sanctioned by the United States for ferrying fighters to Syria, operated the flight.
The emergency landing came just a month after Iranian forces unintentionally shot down a Ukraine International Airlines passenger plane soon after it took off from Tehran, killing all 176 people on board. Iran first blamed technical issues with the plane before acknowledging that its own forces had accidentally brought down the plane, a consequence of the heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran that had played out since an American drone strike killed Iran’s top security and intelligence commander, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani. Amos Yadlin, a retired major general in the Israeli Air Force who heads the country’s leading national-security think tank, hit back sharply at the Russian assertion, suggesting on Twitter that the Russians were taking out on Israel their frustrations with the ineptitude of Syria’s air defense forces, which use Russian equipment.
Hwaida Saad contributed reporting. “Probably, the Russians were pre-warned about the strike over the deconfliction channels,” he wrote. But some in Russia who are “frustrated with the Syrian air defense failure to deal with the Israeli air force, accuse Israel who fights Iran’s continuing entrenchment in Syria.”
Recalling Syria’s downing of a Russian plane in September 2018, and Iran’s downing of the Ukrainian passenger liner over Tehran last month, Mr. Yadlin a former fighter pilot himself, wrote that “advanced and effective” Russian air defense systems were being “recklessly employed by Syrian and Iranian operators” and “endangering civil aviation.”
Israeli Air Force jets, he wrote, “do not ‘hide’ behind civilian aircraft!” To the contrary, he added, Israeli “tries to operate in hours with little civilian traffic.”
Mr. Yadlin said that the plane’s path showed no abrupt sharp turns that would suggest an emergency, but rather a “standard go-around” and “diversion to an alternate airfield” about 200 miles away.
Vivian Yee reported from Beirut, Lebanon, and David M. Halbfinger from Jerusalem. Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut, and Andrew Kramer from Moscow.