A-50 aircraft. IMAGE: Marina Lystseva/TASS
On June 2, militants in the northwestern Syrian region of Greater Idlib fired a missile at a Russian reconnaissance aircraft that was on a mission over the region.
The missile missed the aircraft, which was identified by some sources as an Beriev A-50 airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) plane. At least one A-50 is deployed in Hmeimim Air Base on the Syrian coast. The plane conducts reconnaissance sorties over Greater Idlib on a daily basis.
Click to see full-size image.
A source in the Syrian Arab Army, who is present on one of Greater Idlib frontlines, confirmed to SouthFront that an anti-aircraft missile was launched from the region. However, the source said the target was a drone. According to him, the missile missed its target.
Some opposition activists said that the missile was fired by militants of the al-Fateh al-Mubeen Operation Room, which is led by al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Greater Idlib factions, including HTS, are known to be in possession of several man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADs).
Older systems, like the Soviet-made 9K32 Strela-2, were looted from Syrian military stockpiles in the early years of the war. More advanced systems, like Chinese-made FN-6 MANPADs, were supplied by Qatar and Turkey.
The militants’ use of such systems represents a dangerous escalation and a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement in Greater Idlib, which was brokered by Russia and Turkey on March 5 2020.
A few FOABs on their dickheads should solve the problem…
Not sure why Russians use this very expensive plane in Idlib, these aircrafts must be protected it with fighters.
A. because they are funding the Syrian mission with their training budget and rotate crews through Syria so it gets them experience in a real threat environment.
B. I suspect the Russians have fighters in the air over Syria most of the time … at the very least they have aircraft ready to scramble … plus they have some pretty nifty long range SAM’s and radar. If you can sneak up on an A-50 it deserves to be shot down.
Not to worry. The MANPAD missiles these goons used are unable to reach the altitude where this type of aircraft flies. If they aimed at it of course they missed but actually they wasted munitions.
Yes until the Turkish Roaches supply them with some longer range missiles.
They said the missile missed,well what are they waiting for a missile to down an aircraft ?when will they stop pissing about with Idlib and liberate it.?
It wasn’t the Jews, princess.