FILE PHOTO: Israeli F-15 fighter jet © Reuters
In the early morning hours of November 24, a new wave of Israeli airstrikes hit several targets in the central region of Syria.
An unnamed military official told the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) that the airstrikes were launched from Lebanon’s airspace.
“At around 01:26 of today’s morning, the Israeli enemies carried out an aerial aggression with salvos of missiles from the direction of northeastern Beirut, targeting some positions in the central region,” the official said.
According to the official, most of the Israeli missiles were successfully intercepted by Syrian air defenses. One of the anti-aircraft missiles fired by a Syrian S-200 long-range air-defense system fell off the shores of the northern Israeli city of Haifa.
The Syrian state TV released footage showing the aftermath of the Israeli airstrikes without disclosing the locations of the targeted positions.
Initially, the SANA reported that two civilians were killed in the airstrike, while two others and six Syrian soldiers were wounded. Later however, official Syrian sources confirmed that at least three soldiers were also killed.
This was the fourth Israeli attack on Syria in November. The most recent attack took place on November 17, exactly a week ago. The attack targeted an empty building in the southern outskirts of the capital, Damascus.
These attacks were a part of Israel’s “War-Between-Wars” military campaign, which is meant to push Iran and its allies out of Syria as well as to prevent them from developing their offensive capabilities. None of these objectives have been achieved as of yet.
Next time Israel do it, we will give Assad the S-300, if Israel do it just one more time.
That doesn’t look likely .. ever.. That was supposed to happen 18 mths ago plus a few missiles on the bases the jets took off from but that has never happened. It appears as long as Israel steer clear of Russian targets then Israel is free to do whatever it likes in Syria . There must be some communications between Israel and Russia to ensure their strikes don’t accidentally hit Russian assets so they have a free hand to attack whenever they like and very little Syria can do about it. That is what all the evidence from the last couple of years says .
The fact that the old S-200 system is still in use, is a testament to the ingenuity of the Syrians. They use whatever they can to keep the old system going. Clearly, whatever radar or electronic upgrades they have done to the old Soviet systems, have certainly increased the range of the old missiles. I am curious though, where are the S-300 systems that Russia gave to the SAA? I’m guessing they don’t use them, simply because they consider that a dramatic escalation against Israel? I guess that would also assume the S-300 would be much more effective, and shoot down the Israeli warplanes over Lebanon?