Israel has attacked Syria. Israel's new strike on Syria has an important difference from previous ones

Syrian air defenses were able to destroy five of the eight missiles

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

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

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

Trump threatens

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

Last night, the official Syrian agency SANA reported that the territory of the air base in the province of Homs was subjected to rocket attack. According to the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Mayadeen, missiles from the Mediterranean flew towards Syria over Lebanese territory.

Syrian state television said on Monday that the Syrian air defense forces shot down several enemy missiles during a missile attack on the Tifor air base (T-4) of the government air force. It was reported about the dead and wounded at the base, but their number was not called.

On the night of February 10, Israeli fighter jets shot down an Iranian drone, which, according to Israel, was launched from Syrian territory. Then Israel in the central part of Syria in the region of the province of Damascus.

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 in Israel, the pilots ejected.

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

Subsequently, Israel turned to Russia with a request to intervene and prevent the escalation of the situation in Syria after the incident with the downed Iranian drone.

On the evening of February 10, the Kremlin press service reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "The situation around the actions of the Israeli Air Force, which carried out missile strikes on targets in Syria, was discussed," the statement said.

The Russian side spoke 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 Yisrael Katz said that the strikes against Iranian military positions in Syria were a signal from Israel that it would not tolerate an Iranian military presence on its borders. According to Katz, the Iranians will have time to "think, understand and ask how Israel knows how to strike at these objects."

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

And all this against the backdrop of an actively developing story with a fake chemical attack in the Duma. The Western media are actively broadcasting footage of small children allegedly hit by adults who are being poured with water, without any protection.

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

And this despite the fact that those who agreed to lay down their arms are now being taken out of the Duma itself, the last stronghold of the militants in Eastern Ghouta. 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, it is precisely this that does not give peace to some in the west.

And today, Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in Syria by phone with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The 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 two Israeli Air Force F-15 aircraft attacked the Syrian Tifor airbase. They did not enter Syrian airspace; they fired rockets over Lebanese territory. Beirut, by the way, confirmed the violation of its air borders by the Israelis.

“Here we need to understand. There are a lot of messages about who flew, who did not fly. In Washington, at least for now, they denied that the strikes were carried out by the Americans or any of their coalition members. This once again indicates 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, began to appear and other goals, both announced and carefully concealed,” Sergey Lavrov noted.

It is no coincidence that Washington hastened to disown the raid. It was the Americans that many suspected when it was still unknown who had 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 positioned as an alleged response to the alleged chemical attack in the city of Douma, in which, of course, Assad was blamed. The video was distributed by the infamous "White Helmets", who were caught on staged videos more than once, did not particularly bother this time either. On the video footage of the victims, as we are convinced, people without special clothing, with their bare hands, wash themselves with water from chemical weapons.

“Now that Assad’s victory is no longer in doubt, these gentlemen, with the help of such fake footage, 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 at least under some pretext,” explains Igor Nikulin, a former member of the UN Commission on Chemical and Biological Weapons.

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

“Our military specialists have already visited this place, as well as 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 did not find any traces of the use of chlorine or the use of any other chemical against civilians there,” Sergey Lavrov said.

Here they are, the testimonies of the Red Crescent employees, who assure that they learned about the chemical attack in Duma, where they have been working for more than one year, from the news.

“From April 6 to April 8, only patients with shrapnel wounds and ordinary military injuries were admitted to the hospital. Not a single person was with 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 Douma.

“I am an emergency physician assistant, driving patients to a hospital in the city of Duma. From April 6 to April 8, we did not have a single victim of chemical poisoning, only ordinary injuries,” said Ahmed Saur, an ambulance driver in the city of Douma.

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

“There were three cases in January and February of this year. We were brought to the emergency department of people, allegedly affected by poisonous substances, with respiratory problems. After the physical examination, we did not find any problems, provided oxygen assistance, administered saline intravenously. And that's it. During my time in Duma, there was no evidence of the use of poisonous substances,” notes Mohammed Adnan Tbang.

And they knew everything. Those in the West who are now unsubstantiated accusing Assad. It was enough to recall Vladimir Putin's very recent warning in Astana. During tripartite talks with the leaders of Iran and Turkey, the Russian president warned that militants were preparing a provocation with chemical weapons in the city of Douma.

“Any means are being used. We have received, for example, irrefutable evidence of the militants preparing provocations with the use of poisonous substances. In this regard, we agreed to build up trilateral coordination on all aspects of anti-terror, to increase the exchange of information,” Vladimir Putin said.

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

"Syrian representatives passed information to the UN Security Council, here, to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, they warned that a provocation with the use of chlorine was being prepared, all this was taken into account, but, unfortunately, this relapse could not be avoided," he said. Russian Permanent Representative to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin.

A relapse is when you look at what is happening, and the feeling does not leave you: we have already seen all this somewhere. Exactly one year ago, Khan Sheikhoun. The same shocking shots that the experts later talked about were staged. And the symptoms of poisoning did not match - the pupils of the victims, for example, were dilated, not constricted. And the author of that scandalous shooting, it turns out, was charged with terrorism and kidnapping. And a specially trained journalist, protected only by a symbolic respirator, without coughing, walked near a hole in the asphalt, where, as he assured, a chemical shell landed that day.

The West defiantly did not notice the arguments of reason, what then, what now. After Khan Sheikhoun, the Americans fired missiles at the Syrian Shayrat air base. Now - the Israelis, the air base "Tifor". The Pentagon does not rule out military action against Syria. And the UN Security Council is going on 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 at the initiative of Russia on the threat to international security.

And now about what is actually happening in the city of Duma. Live broadcast on the website of the Russian Ministry of Defense, checkpoint "Muhayam al-Vafedin". The militants voluntarily leave the city with their families. Why, then, was it necessary to poison someone with gas? 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.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption An Israeli Air Force F-16 fighter jet crashed in the north of the country, the pilots ejected, but were injured

Israel has dealt a powerful blow to the Syrian air defense system after an Israeli fighter jet was shot down during an air raid.

According to a senior Israeli Air Force official, General Tomer Bar, this air strike was the most powerful since the war in Lebanon in 1982. At the same time, all the aircraft that took part in the sortie returned safely to base.

Earlier, Israeli aircraft attacked "Iranian targets" in Syria after an Iranian drone launched from Syria was intercepted over the territory of the country. The target of the strikes were drone control systems.

During this attack, Israeli aircraft were fired from air defense systems. As a result, one of the fighters was damaged and crashed in northern Israel. According to the Israeli military, the pilots ejected, but were injured and were hospitalized.

• Israel threatens to destroy Syria's entire air defense system
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This is the first Israeli air force casualty since 2006, when Hezbollah fighters shot down an Israeli helicopter over Lebanon with a rocket. At the same time, all five crew members, including the female flight engineer, were killed.

The Syrian authorities have not yet officially commented on the incident. Previously, in similar cases, they accused Israel of aggression and used air defenses, but so far they have not been able to shoot down Israeli fighters.

At the same time, the Syrian state agency SANA, citing an anonymous source, reports that the Syrian air defenses allegedly shot down more than one aircraft. The air defense system repelled an Israeli air force attack on a military base in the center of Syria, the report said.

In March last year, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that in the event of a new shelling of Israeli aircraft by anti-aircraft missiles, the entire Syrian air defense system would be immediately destroyed.

At that time, Syrian missiles were also fired at Israeli aircraft that attacked Syrian territory. One of the rockets was shot down, the other two fell on Israeli territory. Israeli aircraft were not damaged.

It was reported that Israel then used the Arrow missile defense system in combat conditions for the first time. Now, during the incident with the Iranian drone, an air raid warning system has been activated in some areas of Israel.

Exchange of threats

"The Syrians are playing with fire by allowing the Iranians to attack Israel," warned Israeli army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus. He also added that Israel will make the downed plane pay a high price, but is not interested in escalating the situation.

Meanwhile, Iran and the Tehran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon, whose fighters are fighting for Assad's army, have dismissed claims that an Iranian drone entered Israeli airspace as a lie.

In turn, Russia expressed serious concern over the air strikes by the Israeli Air Force and called on all parties to exercise restraint.

What is the Iranian presence in Syria?

Iran remains the main enemy of Israel, while the Iranian military has been fighting against anti-government groups in Syria since 2011.

Tehran has sent military advisers, volunteers, and, according to some reports, hundreds of professional fighters from the ranks of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to Syria.

It is also believed that Iran sent thousands of tons of weapons and ammunition to help the Assad regime and the Lebanese Hezbollah militants fighting on its side.

Tehran is accused of not just seeking to increase its influence, but wants to provide ground delivery routes for weapons from Iran to Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.

On the night of May 10, 2018, Iranian military formations in Syria fired 20 rockets at the positions of the Israel Defense Forces () on the Golan Heights. According to FAN with reference to the data of the Israeli military,

as a result of the shelling, no losses were recorded in the ranks of the IDF.

The attack used unguided missiles of the Grad multiple launch rocket system and the Fajr model (created in Iran using North Korean technologies). Four Iranian missiles were shot down by the Israeli Iron Dome tactical missile defense system. The rest of the missiles fell on the territory of Syria, not reaching the Golan Heights.

The IDF blames the Iranian Revolutionary Guards al-Quds detachment and the commander of this joint Syrian-Iranian formation, Major General Qassim Soleimani, for the missile attack. Thus,

Israel for the first time directly accuses Iran of attacking its territory.

In response to the Iranian attack, the Israeli Air Force launched what the Israeli media estimated was the largest retaliatory missile strike since 1974. Israeli planes attacked dozens of Iranian military facilities in Syria.

According to the Syrian news agency SANA, dozens of Israeli missiles hit a radar station, Syrian air defense positions and an ammunition dump.

The IDF spokesman for the lieutenant general said that the Syrian air defenses tried to shoot down the Israeli Air Force planes, but were not successful, and a number of batteries were destroyed. RT reports that the Israeli Air Force bombed the positions of the Syrian army at the foot of the Golan Heights in Khan Arnaba.

Conricus was unable to give an exact number of Iranian and Syrian casualties, but noted that the strikes were focused "less on people and more on military infrastructure and equipment." According to him, this choice was due to the need "to permanently weaken the military presence of Iran in Syria."

Conricus also emphasized that

The Russian Federation was alerted via communication channels just before Israel's retaliatory strike on Syrian territory.

The United States backed Israel's strike on the Iranians and Syria, reports NSN. “[The Quds attack on Israel] once again proves that the Iranian regime cannot be trusted. Israel has every right to defend its sovereignty. We support them and will support any action aimed at self-defense, ”said the press secretary of the President of the United States.

The day before, on May 9, the Israeli Air Force had already launched a missile attack on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic.

The attack was allegedly carried out by Israeli Air Force aircraft through Lebanese airspace. However, the IDF command does not comment on information about its involvement in the missile attack.

Syrian air defense forces were able to intercept and shoot down several missiles. The Israeli Air Force attacked an Iranian volunteer camp south of Damascus - the T4 airbase. Several explosions were heard in the El Kiswa interception area. Two missiles were destroyed.

Lebanese journalist Sulome Anderson reported that the group is gathering all its reserves and forces in southern Lebanon near the Israeli border after Israeli air strikes on Iranian targets in the SAR.

Israeli warplanes conducted active observation flights in the Lebanese-Syrian region. Anderson suggested "by some indications" that the further development of the conflict in Syria "may spill over to Lebanon."

On the eve of May 8, Israel put troops on high alert and instructed local authorities in the Golan Heights.

From this area, "unusual activity" of Iranian forces in Syria was recorded. Local authorities were, in particular, instructed to open bomb shelters.

On Tuesday, May 8, the Israeli Prime Minister accused Iran of deploying "very dangerous weapons" in Syria. The politician added that these maneuvers are carried out as part of a campaign to create a threat to the Jewish state.

“Iran openly daily calls for destruction, wiping Israel off the face of the earth and practices unconditional aggression against us. Now Tehran is trying to deploy very dangerous weapons in Syria with the specific goal of destroying us,” Netanyahu said.

Earlier, the US President announced Washington's withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Iran, accusing Tehran of creating nuclear weapons.