On Monday night, just hours after the presidents of Russia and Turkey agreed to de-escalate the situation in Syria’s Idlib province, Israel launched another round of airstrikes on Syria – this time on the city of Latakia – resulting in the accidental downing of a Russian Il-20 military plane, shot down by Syrian Air Defense systems.
Middle East Eye reported earlier today that Russia has blamed Israel for the “friendly fire” incident, because of its “hostile provocation” in the latest missile attack on Syria. The IDF denies any responsibility for the incident which also killed 15 Russian military personnel, and holds Syria and “Iran and the Hezbollah terror organisation accountable for this unfortunate incident.”
As news broke of the event early this morning, 21WIRE’s Patrick Henningsen said on Twitter, “If this report is true, I would tend to think a wider War is close to really breaking out over Syria. The West won’t allow al Qaeda and ISIS to be defeated. This is becoming grotesque…” And later added:
The events of this morning in #Syria are a stark reminder that the rogue state of #Israel is quite happy to drag the rest of the world down into #WW3 for its own selfish and psychotic ends. It does not, and never has recognized any form of International Law.
— Patrick Henningsen (@21WIRE) September 18, 2018
Israel and the West would like nothing better than to see Al-Qaeda and ISIS remain in Syria. Last night’s attack is just another example of this fact.
Here’s a quick list of points we know about the deadly incident thus far, compiled by Kevork Almassian of Syriana-Analysis:
- Russian MoD: An IL-20 aircraft with multiple personnel on board was accidentally shot down by Syrian air defenses.
- Israeli pilots used the Russian plane as a cover & made it vulnerable to the Syrian air defense attack.
- We assess the provocative actions of “Israel” as aggressive
- Location of the IL-20 plane crash 27 km west of Banyas in Latakia.
- Russian MoD: We have the right to respond after aggressive actions by the Israeli side in Syria.
- Israel did not alert the leadership of the Russian forces in Syria about its operation in the Lattakia region.
- Israeli government: Our political and military leadership will not comment now on the Russian accusations
Israel continues its ‘psychotic’ war games over Syria, completely unchecked. This is the problem.
READ MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Syria Files
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