The Israeli Air Force suffered the first combat losses in the Syrian conflict, a Turkish helicopter was also shot down at the border. The growing tension in the sky over the region was the result of the end of the fight against terrorists, says the expert.


Early in the morning on Saturday, February 10, the Syrian air defense shot down the F-16 fighter of the Israeli Air Force. The incident occurred over the territory of Israel itself, not far from the Sea of ​​Galilee and the Golan Heights, which formally form part of Syria, but since 1967 they have been controlled by Israel.

Both pilots successfully catapulted, one of them in critical condition was taken to the hospital. Fragments of the fighter fell to the south-west of the Sea of ​​Galilee, directly on Israeli territory.

The last time the Israeli aviation suffered losses in the region in 2013, when the F-16 fell into the Mediterranean during a training flight. The Israeli Air Force did not have combat casualties since the Second Lebanon War of 2006. At the same time, Israeli aircraft regularly bomb targets in Syria. According to Reuters, it has committed more than 100 such raids. In rare comments about the attacks on Syria, the Israeli leadership explains their need to combat the growth of the Iranian military presence in Syria and the strengthening of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah loyal to Tehran.

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The collapse of F-16 was preceded by the following. In particular, on the night of Saturday, the Israelis spotted the movement of the Iranian reconnaissance drones (unmanned aircraft) from Syria towards the Israeli border, allowed him to cross the border and shot down. After that, the Israeli Air Force, without crossing the border, attacked the place from which the unmanned aerial vehicle was supposedly launched. According to the spokesman of the Israeli Ministry of Defense Ronen Manelis, this was "a surgical operation deep inside Syrian territory."

The Syrian air defense forces reacted to this blow by knocking down the Israeli F-16.

After that, Israel attacked 12 targets inside Syria, among which were not only the alleged locations of the Iranian forces, but also the Syrian air defense base. This operation was described by Jerusalem as the largest attack on Syria's air defense since the First Lebanon War of 1982. According to the Syrian Human Rights Monitoring Center (SOHR), the attack was carried out in three rounds, resulting in the death of at least six people - soldiers of the Syrian army and their allies from other countries.

The Israeli F-16 was shot down by a missile from the S-200 anti-aircraft missile system designed in the USSR back in the 1960s, Anton Mardasov, an expert of the Russian Council for International Affairs, is confident. Previously, Syrian government forces claimed they used the S-200, but until today, doubts remained about the ability of the system to carry out full-scale combat duty, RBC explained Mardasov.

The American research center Eurasia Group expects that, as part of the containment policy, Tel Aviv will continue to demonstrate to Iran and Syria the readiness to continue air strikes, Reuters quotes an analytical note from the center's experts. "However, the next such incident can easily push the parties to a regional conflict," warns Eurasia Group.

"There is a possibility that the Iranian drone was used as a bait for the Israelis, after which the air defense system struck, but it is difficult to confirm," Mardasov said.

Negotiations for three

After the crash of the fighter, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu phoned with Russian President Vladimir Putin and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. "Our position is clear: Israel will protect itself from any aggression and attempts to violate its sovereignty. I assured Putin that it is our right and duty to protect ourselves from attacks from Syria, "Netanyahu said.

The Kremlin website on this occasion succinctly says that the Russian side has spoken out for the parties to avoid any steps that could lead to the unraveling of the confrontation in the region.

State Department spokesman Heather Neuerter after the conversation, Netanyahu and Tillerson expressed "unqualified support" for Israel's actions to protect sovereignty.

"The escalation of the threat and its attempts to expand the sphere of influence threaten all the inhabitants of the region - from Yemen to Lebanon," Neuert said, adding that the US will continue to resist Tehran's "pernicious activity."

Moscow already acts as a mediator in the contacts between Israel and Syria with Iran, in order to prevent the escalation of the confrontation, the diplomatic sources of The Times of Israel assure.

According to Mardasov, Russia has neither the will nor the ability to radically influence the actions of Iran: "Firstly, Tehran is Moscow's tactical ally. Secondly, Iran has already established a powerful zone of influence in south-western Syria, on the border with Israel, with the support of local forces, in addition to foreign support. The maximum possible for pacification of Tehran - steps to raise the forces or an attempt to erode Iranian influence in the pro-government militia ".

Dangerous sky

Over the past week, the confrontation in the skies over Syria has hardened. February 3 detachments of the armed Syrian opposition shot down the Russian Su-25 attack aircraft in the province of Idlib in northwestern Syria, pilot Roman Filipov died in battle on the ground. On February 10, not only Iran's drones and Israeli F-16s were shot down, but also the Turkish helicopter T129 ATAK.

Ankara confirmed that the helicopter fell on February 10 in the Turkish province of Hatay in the area of ​​the Turkish operation "Olive Branch", which is directed against Kurdish formations in the canton of Afrin in the north-west of Syria. Ankara considers detachments of Syrian Kurds as a branch of the "Workers' Party of Kurdistan" banned in Turkey. According to the Turkish leadership, the loss of the T129 ATAK helicopter and the death of its two pilots are exactly the Kurds.

The growing air loss was the result of the aggravation of the contradictions between all the participants in the Syrian conflict that began after the military victory over the "Islamic state" (the terrorist group banned in Russia), Mardasov said. "Now these contradictions are difficult to camouflage in the fight against terrorism. The increasingly multifaceted nature of the Syrian conflict leads to such incidents, "the expert added.

Link: https://www.rbc.ru/politics/11/02/20...794727c97b65d9