BICOM

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) yesterday shot down a Syrian Sukhoi fighter jet that flew two kilometres into Israeli airspace.

Israel launched two Patriot missiles at the Syrian aircraft after it flew into Israeli airspace, causing the plane to crash in Yarmouk, in Syria, and killing the pilot. The Sukhoi jet reportedly took off from the T4 airbase, which Israeli intelligence believe is a base for Iranian forces and has recently been targeted by Israeli bombing raids.

The plane was believed to be on its way to bomb rebel-held sites in the Syrian Golan Heights and was the second Syrian plane to be shot down by Israel since the start of the civil war in Syria. (The previous one was shot down in 2014 after it entered the no-fly zone in the Golan Heights.)

Responding to the incident, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “This was a blatant violation of the 1974 Israel-Syria Separation of Forces Agreement. He said that Israel “would not accept any such violation” and “will not allow our territory to be infiltrated nor will we allow any spillover into our territory, be it from the ground or the air”.

Syria’s official news agency, SANA, said: “Israel shot down a Syrian fighter jet, as part of the aid that it has been giving the terrorist organisations. The fighter jet was on its way to attack terrorist groups. The Zionist enemy defended the terrorist groups and proved that it supports them.”

Ben Caspit reported in Maariv that Russian officials initially protested the Israeli decision to shoot down the aircraft but were ultimately persuaded that the Israeli action was justified after being shown proof that the plane had entered Israeli airspace. A security official told Maariv yesterday: “We stressed that we do not have the option of checking the intentions of one Syrian pilot or another, but we do have the option of knowing whether our sovereignty was violated and whether a fighter jet belonging to a regime that is at war with us is in Israeli airspace. Any Syrian plane that penetrates Israeli territory will be shot down and that is a red line for us”.

The Jerusalem Post reported that a Syrian official warned last night that Syria will respond “soon enough” to the incident.

The Sukhoi Su-24, also known by its NATO codename Fencer, was first introduced into the Soviet Air Force in 1975. It is equipped with air-to-surface missiles with a range of five kilometres and air-to-air missiles with a range of three kilometres. The plane also has three rapid-fire cannons and various bombs. Its maximum speed is 1,550km/h and it has a flight range of 3,000km.