The firing of two missiles at Israeli aircraft bears witness to the growing confidence of Assad’s army. It is still too soon to determine whether the Syrian Army’s firing of missiles at IAF aircraft before dawn on Tuesday signifies a policy shift by the Assad regime regarding Israeli military activity in the area.

This determination will better be made if similar fire is carried out the next time the IAF or IDF gunners attack in response to mortar shells or artillery fire that land in Israeli territory. However, one thing is already clear: The firing of two S-200 surface-to-air missiles in the Quneitra region was not a coincidence. The Syrian Army released an official statement on the incident.

This is the first known instance of Assad’s army retaliating to Israeli military activity in Syrian territory since the country’s civil war began some five-and-a-half years ago. For the past several years, according to foreign media, the IAF has acted unmolested in Syrian airspace in violation of Syria’s sovereignty and the March 1974 Disengagement Agreement that the two countries signed after the Yom Kippur War.

Read the full article at Jerusalem Post.