Israeli attack on Syria. Israel's new attack on Syria has an important difference from previous ones. Didn't get in touch

Israeli Air Force planes launched a missile attack on targets located in the Damascus-controlled Hisya industrial zone, located 35 km south of the Syrian city of Homs. An unnamed Syrian Arab Army commander said the attack targeted a copper factory.

In response to the Israeli attack, Syrian air defense forces launched a retaliatory strike. Surface-to-air missiles from the Syrian Arab Army's 72nd Division were fired at Israeli Air Force fighters operating from neighboring Lebanese airspace. The Syrian commander did not report casualties, writes Reuters.

Conkrikus also stressed that Tel Aviv “retains the capacity and freedom of action to prevent any hostile actions or intentions from Syria.”

At the beginning of September 2017, Israeli aircraft attacked the positions of Syrian government forces in the province of Hama, as a result of the airstrike two people were killed, FAN reports.

According to the department, the Israeli Air Force attacked the positions of the Syrian armed forces in the area of ​​​​the city of Masyaf, which is located north of Homs.

At the same time, the Israeli military refused to comment on the report of an airstrike on positions of Syrian government forces, noting that they do not disclose information related to current operations.

Syrian authorities described the Israeli airstrike as “an aggressive act that could have dangerous consequences for the security and stability of the region." In addition, Damascus accused Israel of supporting militants.

MOSCOW, September 18 - RIA Novosti, Andrey Kots. The Russian aviation group in Syria suffered losses: on Monday evening, a reconnaissance plane with 15 servicemen on board was shot down from the ground by “friendly fire”. An Il-20 landing was fired upon by the Syrian anti-aircraft missile system S-200, repelling a raid by Israeli F-16 fighters on military targets in Latakia. The Russian Ministry of Defense claims that Israeli pilots covered by a Russian plane. Moreover, Israel warned about the attack a minute before the strike. The Ministry of Defense reserves the right to take adequate response actions, which Sergei Shoigu has already warned Israeli Minister Lieberman about. What is known on this moment about the night escalation in Syria, - in the RIA Novosti material.

Didn't get in touch

Communication with the Il-20 aircraft was lost on Monday at 22:07. IN last time he was seen three dozen kilometers from the coast, when the plane was landing after an hour and a half patrol. By mid-Tuesday, the Russian Ministry of Defense managed to almost completely restore the picture of what happened.

While the board was descending from a height of five kilometers, from the side Mediterranean Sea At an extremely low altitude, four Israeli Air Force F-16 aircraft with GBU-39 guided bombs approached the coast. As they approached, they launched two strikes on Syrian infrastructure facilities in Latakia - an oil depot, an airfield of the Syrian Air Force, a military base and an aluminum plant. After which they turned around and went back towards the sea.

"Israeli planes deliberately created dangerous situation for surface ships and aircraft in the area. The bombing was carried out near the location of the French frigate Auvergne and in close proximity to the Il-20 aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces that was landing. Hiding behind a Russian plane, Israeli pilots exposed it to Syrian air defense fire,” said the head of the information and mass communications Russian Ministry of Defense Major General Igor Konashenkov.

The alerted Syrian air defense forces tried to repel the attack from the air, but one S-200 system accidentally captured the wrong target and, instead of an Israeli fighter, destroyed a Russian reconnaissance aircraft, whose effective reflective surface is an order of magnitude greater than that of the F-16. The Russian Ministry of Defense emphasized that Israeli aviation controls could not help but see the Il-20 as it was landing. A search and rescue operation is currently ongoing in the area of ​​the crash.

Il-20 aircraft have long been used in Syria to perform a number of tasks: electronic reconnaissance, target designation of bombers, airspace control, and jamming. They are equipped with a side-view radar, an infrared scanner, optical sensors, and a satellite communication system for real-time data exchange. There are about 20 aircraft of this type in the Aerospace Forces and Navy Aviation. Previously, neither the USSR nor Russia lost an Il-20 in the combat zone.

Whose decision

The head of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Sergei Shoigu, placed the blame for the downing of the plane entirely on the Israeli side. He directly said this over the phone to Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Shoigu stressed that the tragedy that claimed the lives of 15 Russian servicemen was due to irresponsibility Israeli Air Force, ignoring repeated calls from the Russian department to refrain from attacks on Syria.

The Kremlin is extremely concerned about the current situation. Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said that Vladimir Putin sincerely sympathizes with the family and friends, as well as fellow military personnel who died in the Il-20 crash. At the same time, Peskov assured that the incident would not in any way affect the agreements between Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on the demilitarization of Syria.
Earlier, on Monday, the presidents of Russia and Turkey, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at a meeting in Sochi signed a memorandum on stabilizing the situation in the de-escalation zone in Idlib. By October 15, a demilitarized zone 15-20 kilometers deep will be created along the line of contact between the armed opposition and government forces. It will be controlled by mobile patrol groups of Turkish units and the Russian military police. The parties decided not to carry out a major offensive operation in the province for now.

It is unlikely that the missile and air strike on Latakia are in any way connected with the outcome of the negotiations. After all, the US-led coalition has long been a fear global community the danger of mass casualties during the offensive of the Syrian Arab Army in Idlib and it is unlikely in its interests to aggravate relations with Russia, which has just agreed to slow down the final push on the province. Obviously, Israel is pursuing its own goals here: to weaken Iran’s position in Syria. Israeli aviation constantly attacks Syrian provinces. Given that the Syrian, Iranian and Russian militaries often act together, such an incident could happen sooner or later.

© Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

© Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

Another question is why French President Emmanuel Macron decided to launch a missile strike. However, the choice of targets for attack is enterprises chemical industry— suggests that he decided not to wait for the formal casus belli — “Assad’s use chemical weapons"If we take into account the fact that an American reconnaissance plane was flying along the Syrian coast all day before the attack, the French president could have received a “blessing from above” for the missile strike.

Immediately after the loss of contact with the plane, the media instantly circulated several versions of the mysterious disappearance of the Il-20, with the first the real reason This morning was announced by the American television channel CNN. At first this version was called a fake. It is noteworthy that at the time of the attack on the plane, Russian radar equipment airspace control detected missile launches from the French Navy frigate Auvergne in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Next to him was a Russian patrol ship"Inquisitive". However, the version that the Russian plane was hit by a salvo from a French warship initially seemed unfounded - cruise missiles The SCALPs with which such frigates are armed reach the target at an altitude of no more than 30-40 meters, while the IL-20, vulnerable to fire from the ground, operates significantly higher.

Summer weather

The activity of the Israeli Air Force near the borders of Syria has been off the charts in recent months. According to Israeli media reports, citing sources in the army, in the last year and a half alone, aircraft have carried out more than two hundred missile and bomb attacks on Iranian military infrastructure facilities on the territory of the Arab Republic. Moreover, the Israeli side in most cases refused to comment.

Thus, according to the Syrian national news agency SANA, in early September, Israeli aircraft carried out a strike on the province of Tartus, as a result of which eight people were injured. At the same time, several missiles were fired at the Wadi al-Uyun area in the vicinity of Hama, and some Syrian air defenses managed to shoot down.

A month earlier, the Israeli Air Force attacked a military facility in the city of Masyaf in Syria. In July, aircraft fired rockets at several army installations in the border southern Syrian province of Quneitra. "We do not comment on messages in foreign press", an employee of the press service of the Israel Defense Forces told RIA Novosti at the time.

The Tifor air base in the eastern province of Homs has been attacked from the air at least three times since the beginning of the year. The Syrian press immediately blamed the Israelis for the raids; they, as usual, refrained from commenting. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, in April two F-15 fighter jets fired eight missiles at the base, five of which were shot down. The Russian advisers were not injured in the attack.

The official Syrian agency SANA reported that several people were killed and injured as a result of the bombing. In May, Israeli aircraft attacked dozens of targets in Syria and air defense batteries.

Already strained Syrian-Israeli relations were put to the test on July 24 when Israeli air defenses shot down a Syrian Su-22 aircraft that the Israeli military said had flown two kilometers into airspace controlled by the Jewish state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then announced a “gross violation of the disengagement agreements” between Israel and Syria from 1974. Damascus claims that the bomber carried out a combat mission against terrorists and did not cross the border.

The situation in Syria has again come to the fore today. This night, a powerful missile strike was carried out on the Tifor airfield of the Syrian Air Force, and there were casualties. The attack was carried out by Israeli aircraft, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported. They told in detail how it happened. Two F-15 fighter jets, without entering Syrian airspace, fired eight missiles from the Lebanese sky at a military facility. Syrian air defenses managed to intercept five of them, and reached the remaining targets. And as if on cue, at the same moment the terrorists’ ground attack began.

And all this is active in the background evolving history with a fake chemical attack in the Duma. Western media They are actively broadcasting footage of small children allegedly being hit, adults pouring water on them, without any protection.

Last year's video - Khansheikhun - is almost a carbon copy. But those accusations of a chemical attack became the reason for the Americans to launch a missile strike on a Syrian airfield. And here again are calls for a tough response, and again Trump is making threats on Twitter.

And this despite the fact that from the Duma itself, the last stronghold of militants in Eastern Ghouta, now those who agreed to lay down their arms are being taken out. Here are just today's shots. That is, there are only a few days left until the complete liberation of the suburbs of Damascus, and perhaps this is what haunts some people in the West.

And today, Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in Syria by phone with Turkish President Recep Erdogan and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Russian leader drew attention to the inadmissibility of provocations and speculation.

Official Israel remains silent about the night incident. But the Russian Ministry of Defense has data that the blow to Syrian airbase The Tifor attack was carried out by two Israeli Air Force F-15 aircraft. They did not enter Syrian airspace and fired missiles over Lebanese territory. Beirut, by the way, confirmed the Israelis' violation of their air borders.

“We need to figure this out. There are a lot of messages there about who flew and who didn’t fly. Washington, at least for now, denied that the attacks were carried out by the Americans or any member of their coalition. This once again shows that it is becoming too dangerous there, in Syria, where players appeared who were not invited anywhere, who invited themselves there under the pretext of destroying ISIS, fighting terrorism, and then, in addition to this goal, people began to appear other goals, both announced and carefully hidden,” noted Sergei Lavrov.

It is no coincidence that Washington hastened to disown the raid. It was the Americans who were suspected by many when it was still unknown who struck. After all, the day before the United States promised to deal harshly with Syria. Trump went so far as to call Assad an animal, and threatened Russia and Iran that they would pay dearly for his support. All this is being positioned as a supposed response to the alleged chemical attack in the city of Duma, which, of course, was blamed on Assad. The video was distributed by the notorious “White Helmets”, who have been caught in staged videos more than once, but didn’t bother much this time either. In the video footage of the victims, we are assured, people without special clothing and with their bare hands are washing off chemical weapons with water.

“Now that Assad’s victory is no longer in doubt, these gentlemen, with the help of such fake filming, want to attract attention to themselves and somehow change the nature of this war. Those who do not want to leave Syria are trying, with the help of their mercenaries, to do everything to stay there under at least some pretext,” explains former member UN Commission on Chemical and biological weapons Igor Nikulin.

The question is not who carried out the chemical attack in the Duma, but whether there was a chemical attack at all? Those who were on the spot, and not just saw scary videos on the Internet, doubt it.

“Our military specialists have already visited this place, and representatives of the Syrian Red Crescent Society, which enjoys a very good reputation among international organizations, including the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross. They found no traces of the use of chlorine or other chemical substance against civilians,” said Sergei Lavrov.

Here they are, the testimonies of Red Crescent employees who claim that they learned about the chemical attack in the Duma, where they have been working for many years, from the news.

“From April 6 to 8, we received patients at the hospital only with shrapnel wounds and ordinary military injuries. Not a single person suffered from chemical poisoning. I have not seen any evidence of a chemical attack in the patients of our hospital,” says Yasser Abdel Majid, a doctor at the central hospital in the city of Douma.

“I am an assistant emergency doctor, I take patients to the hospital in the city of Duma. From April 6 to 8, we did not have a single casualty from chemical poisoning, only ordinary injuries,” says Ahmed Saur, an ambulance driver in the city of Duma.

Moreover, the Red Crescent says that they have not seen any signs of the use of chemical weapons in the past.

“There were three cases in January and February of this year. People were brought to our emergency department allegedly affected by toxic substances and with respiratory problems. After the medical examination, we did not find any problems, provided oxygen assistance, and administered saline intravenously. That's all. During my work in the Duma there was no evidence of the use of toxic substances,” notes Mohammed Adnan Tbang.

But they knew everything. Those in the West who are now accusing Assad without evidence. It was enough to recall Vladimir Putin’s very recent warning in Astana. During trilateral talks with the leaders of Iran and Turkey Russian President warned that militants were preparing a provocation with chemical weapons in the city of Duma.

“Any means are used. We have received, for example, irrefutable evidence that militants are preparing provocations using toxic substances. In this regard, we agreed to increase trilateral coordination on all aspects of anti-terrorism and to increase the exchange of information,” Vladimir Putin said.

Everyone knew in the OPCW - the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. They listened to the alarming messages of the Syrian representatives and, it seems, immediately forgot about what they heard.

“Syrian representatives transmitted information to the UN Security Council, here, to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, they warned that a provocation was being prepared using chlorine, all this was taken into account, but, unfortunately, it was not possible to avoid this relapse,” he noted. Russia's Permanent Representative to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin.

A relapse is when you look at what’s happening and you can’t help but feel: we’ve already seen all this somewhere. Exactly a year ago Khan Sheikhun. The same shocking footage that experts later talked about was staged. And the symptoms of poisoning did not coincide - the pupils of the victims, for example, were dilated, not constricted. And the author of that scandalous filming, it turns out, was facing charges of terrorism and kidnapping. And a specially trained journalist, protected only by a symbolic respirator, walked without coughing near a hole in the asphalt where, as he assured, a chemical shell landed that day.

The West pointedly did not notice the arguments of reason, then and now. After Khan Sheikhoun, the Americans fired missiles at the Syrian Shayrat airbase. Now - Israelis, Tifor airbase. The Pentagon does not rule out military measures against Syria. And the UN Security Council is meeting, at the initiative of nine countries led by the United States, to discuss the chemical attack, the very fact of which has not yet been confirmed, but the perpetrators have already been appointed. True, then there will be a second meeting, already on the initiative of Russia about the threat international security.

And now about what is really happening in the city of Duma. Live broadcast on the website of the Russian Ministry of Defense, checkpoint “Muhayam al-Wafedin”. The militants voluntarily leave the city with their families. Why, then, was it necessary to gas someone? Moreover, those leaving the Duma were asked about the alleged chemical attack, and they replied that they were hearing about it for the first time.

Contrary to expectations, the United States has not yet attempted to strike Syria, but Israel has done so instead. Israeli army This is not the first time it has carried out attacks on Syrian targets - but the one that was carried out on Monday night has several features. One of them is extremely important and directly related to Russia.

An airstrike on the T-4 airfield of the Syrian al-Tiyas base in Homs was carried out by two F-15 fighters of the Israeli Air Force, the Russian Ministry of Defense. The department’s statement notes: “On April 9, from 03.25 to 03.53 Moscow time, two Israeli Air Force F-15 aircraft, without entering Syrian airspace, from Lebanese territory attacked the T-4 airfield with eight guided missiles. The air defense units of the Syrian Armed Forces destroyed five guided missiles during the anti-aircraft battle.” Three missiles, according to the Russian military, “reached the western part of the airfield.” These missiles could not be shot down due to the fact that the electronic warfare systems at the very beginning of the attack encountered overwhelming influence from the outside, the source of which has not yet been established, the media.

As the SANA news agency reported, citing a military source, several people were killed and injured as a result of the attack. For example, there were unconfirmed reports of 14 deaths, including Iranian military personnel. So, about two dead Iranians. “There are no casualties among Russian advisers in Syria,” the release emphasizes.

And the US is involved in striking a Syrian military base. First Deputy Head international committee Federation Council Vladimir Dzhabarov expressed the opinion that Russia, through the defense and diplomatic departments, is already asking Israel about the reasons for the airstrike on the Syrian military base. “Israel could use some of its intelligence data and decide on an airstrike,” he stated.

How could the Syrians shoot down Israeli missiles? “The Syrians have a wide range of capabilities for destroying such missiles - from the Strela-10 air defense system to the Shilka and the Buk complex. They also have Pantsir complexes,” a military expert told the newspaper VZGLYAD, Chief Editor magazine "Arsenal of the Fatherland" Viktor Murakhovsky.

On Monday there was news that Russia had supplied Syria with up to 40 anti-aircraft guns missile and gun systems"Pantsir-S1" for protection against air attacks. " It's about about exports, and not about supplies from the Ministry of Defense,” a source in the military department clarified. ZRPK 96K6 "Pantsir-S1" is specifically designed for short-range cover of military and civilian targets, including air defense systems long range, from all modern and promising air attack weapons.

Al-Tiyas is the oldest and one of the largest air bases of the Syrian Air Force. It is located in a strategically important area, in close proximity to the road to Palmyra and not far from the main gas fields that supply Syrian thermal power plants with blue fuel. During the Russian military operation in Syria, the base was used as a jump airfield. The base was heavily damaged and almost destroyed as a result of an ISIS attack in May 2016. In October of the same year, a new runway was built at al-Tiyas.

IN Lately it was reported that the airbase is allegedly partially under the control of Iran and its military personnel are present there. It is from Al-Tiyas that planes most often fly out to attack positions of Syrian rebels.

“Israel believes that the main arrays of Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles are deployed there, which, among other things, were shot down over Israeli territory. There command post, there themselves aircrafts and airfield division technical support“- explained Murakhovsky.

The press service of the Israeli armed forces declined to comment. However, the former boss military intelligence Israel's Amos Yadlin said that the Syrian night attack military base should be seen in the context of the Israeli-Iranian confrontation, and we are talking about a strike aimed primarily at preventing Iran from transferring weapons to Hezbollah.

Another Israeli general, former Air Force commander Eitan Ben-Eliyahu, also said that Israel is seeking to prevent the concentration of Iranian forces in the area. However, in his opinion, this attack was related to “the use of toxic substances in the city of Duma.” According to him, only the United States and Israel were capable of delivering such a strike on the Syrian airbase, but Washington “had no reason to hide the fact of the missile attack.” In addition, Ben-Eliyahu believes, the Pentagon had too little time to prepare for such an attack.

The newspaper VZGLYAD details the alleged chemical attack in Syrian Eastern Ghouta. No confirmation has yet been provided that the attack took place and that chemical weapons were used in it, as well as reliable information about who used them. However, the United States and Great Britain have already rushed to blame Bashar al-Assad and Russia for everything.

Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and Central Asia Semyon Bagdasarov told the newspaper VZGLYAD: “The political prerequisites for the strike are the contradictions between Israel and Iran, the plans of Tehran, Hezbollah and other Shiite formations to reach the Syrian-Israeli border in the area of ​​the Quneitra province, to the Golan Heights.”

“It is unknown whether there were warehouses there or not, but the Israelis believe that wherever Iranian advisers are present, there are some kind of warehouses, there are some funds that are subsequently given to Hezbollah or can be used by the Iranians against Israel. This is the reason why they carried out the attack,” the source added.

Let us recall that in February the Israeli Air Force attacked the al-Tiyas airbase. The reason was that an Iranian drone was launched from this base, violating Israeli airspace. During the attack Syrian air defense shot down an Israeli F-16I fighter-bomber.

“Israeli planes attacked Syrian territory more than 100 times last year alone. Attacks are carried out only on Iranian bases where various types of missiles and spare parts for them are stored, which Iran transports to Hezbollah in Lebanon. In this case, storage facilities were discovered and attacked. This is not the first time and not the second time. Russia knows about this,” Yakov Kedmi, the former director of the Israeli intelligence service Nativ, told the VZGLYAD newspaper. At the same time, according to him, Israel has never attacked any Syrian army, no Iranian advisers, no Shiite militias, no Hezbollah itself in Syria, but only concrete attempts to transfer weapons to Hezbollah. “We do not interfere in all other issues,” the interlocutor emphasized.

The only important difference between the current attack is that the Israelis usually warned Moscow about planned attacks, but this time, apparently, they did not. Although the USA. This is especially critical amid tensions surrounding the US-led campaign surrounding a suspected chemical attack in Eastern Ghouta. Therefore, the Kremlin expressed its bewilderment. Russia is communicating with Israel through the appropriate channels in connection with the attack on the Syrian airbase, Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov. The incident, he said, is a cause for concern for the Kremlin.

“There is nothing new in the attack itself, except that Russia officially announced an Israeli strike, which it had not done before. The reason is that rumors began to spread that the attack was carried out by American planes, and in order to refute these rumors, Moscow exceptionally stated that it was done by Israeli planes,” Kedmi noted. He also added that there are no special political consequences there is no need to wait here.

* An organization in respect of which the court made a decision that has entered into legal force to liquidate or prohibit its activities on the grounds provided for by the Federal Law “On Combating Extremist Activities”

Syrian air defense systems were able to destroy five out of eight missiles

Archive photo

Moscow. April 9. website - Israeli planes launched a missile attack from Lebanese airspace on an airfield in Syria on Monday night, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported.

“On April 9, from 3:25 to 3:53 (Moscow time), two F-15 aircraft of the Israeli Air Force, without entering Syrian airspace, from Lebanese territory attacked the Tifor airfield with eight guided missiles,” - in the Russian military department.

It added that the units air defense Syria was able to destroy five guided missiles, and three missiles reached the western part of the airfield. The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that there were no Russian advisers in Syria among the victims.

Trump threatens

Earlier, US President Donald Trump threatened that the Syrian authorities, whom he considers responsible for the use of chemical weapons, “will pay a high price.” American media, citing sources in official circles, did not rule out that he meant missile strikes on Syrian military targets.

Last night, the official Syrian news agency SANA reported that the airbase in Homs province came under a rocket attack. According to the pan-Arab satellite TV channel Al-Mayadeen, missiles from the Mediterranean Sea flew towards Syria over Lebanese territory.

Syrian state television said on Monday that Syrian air defense forces shot down several enemy missiles during a rocket attack on the government air force's Tifor (T-4) airbase. There were reports of deaths and injuries at the base, but the number was not specified.

On the night of February 10, Israeli fighters shot down an Iranian drone, which, according to Israel, was launched from Syria. Then Israel in central Syria in the area of ​​Damascus province.

As a result of the attack, the Israeli Air Force lost at least one fighter, which came under fire from Syrian air defense systems. The fighter crashed on Israeli territory and the pilots ejected.

In Iran, Israeli reports about an Iranian drone were called outrageous.

Subsequently, Israel asked Russia to intervene and prevent the escalation of the situation in Syria after the incident with the downing of an Iranian drone.

On the evening of February 10, the Kremlin press service reported that the phone conversation Russian President Vladimir Putin with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The situation surrounding the actions of the Israeli Air Force, which launched missile attacks on targets in Syria, was discussed,” the statement said.

The Russian side spoke out in favor of avoiding any steps that could lead to a new round of confrontation in the region that is dangerous for everyone.

The next day, Israeli Intelligence Minister Israel Katz said that striking Iranian military positions in Syria was a signal to Israel that it would not tolerate an Iranian military presence on its borders. Katz said the Iranians will have time to "consider, understand and ask how Israel will know how to strike these targets."