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Two IAF pilots hurt after F-16 downed during retaliatory strike in Syria
Two Israeli F-16 pilots were hurt Saturday morning after their plane was shot down and crashed in Israel following a retaliatory strike in Syria.The pilots were able to bail out of the plane. One pilot was seriously wounded, while the other was only lightly hurt. They were taken to the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa for treatment. The strike was in response to an earlier infiltration into Israel of an Iranian drone originating from an airfield near Palmyra, Syria, which was successfully intercepted by an IDF Apache helicopter. This is bad - one of Israel's major assets was Arabs' belief in IAF's absolute superiority.
The fighter jet crashed in an open area near Kibbutz Harduf. The police said the crash caused no casualties or damage in the community. Alarms sounded across northern and central Israel during the attack as a result of the antiaircraft fire, with several such missiles and their components landing in open territory. Syrian television, meanwhile, quoted a military source in saying that, "Israel carried out new aggression early morning against one of the army bases in the country's center, and our air defense mechanisms resisted and hit more than one plane." The IDF rejected the report, saying only one plane was hit. 12 targets hit The IDF said it launched a large scale attack against Syrian aerial defense systems and Iranian targets in Syria. "Twelve targets, including three aerial defense batteries and four Iranian targets that are part of Iran's military establishment in Syria were attacked," the military said in a statement. Syrian SA5 and SA17 missile batteries were targeted, the IDF said, adding that the Iranian targets to be hit were in the vicinity of the Syrian 4th Division. Syrian media outlets reported that one of the sites targeted by the Israeli air force was an Iranian military base within the greater T-4 Syrian army base complex in the eastern Homs province, 60km east of Palmyra—the same airfield from which the drone took off towards Israel. Militias affiliated with the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad confirmed the Israeli strike against the drone launching station at the T-4 base, which they claimed was used to collect intelligence on terrorist groups in Syria, including the Islamic State. Al-Jazeera reported that as a result of the attack, air traffic at the T-4 base was shut down completely and that the airfield's control center was damaged, adding later that IDF "military implements" were directed to the Golan Heights. Arab media further reported that besides targets in the T-4 airbase, Israel also attacked a military base in the a-Dimas region west of Damascus and near the Lebanese border, the Mezzeh Military Airport in southwestern Damascus, a base of the 104 Division of the Syrian Republican Guard, and a regime weapon storage facility south of al-Kaswa, which is south of Damascus. A Syria war monitor said Israel struck targets in central Syria and the southwestern suburbs of the capital Damascus in two separate and successive waves of airstrikes. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the first round targeted in the central desert area where Syrian troops and their Iranian-backed allies including Hezbollah are known to maintain bases. It cited unconfirmed reports of casualties among Syrian government forces and allied militiamen. The Britain-based Observatory, which monitors the Syria war through a network of activists on the ground, says the second round targeted outposts in the southwestern suburbs of Damascus. Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2018-02-10 |
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