Russian plane shot down over Syria

The Washington Post reports today:

Russia’s Defense Ministry blamed Israel on Tuesday for the loss of an aircraft over Syria’s Mediterranean coast, saying it was downed after Israeli pilots used it as cover during an attack.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Israel gave Russia only a minute’s warning before launching the attack. “Russia reserves the right to take appropriate measures against hostile actions by Israel,” a ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, told reporters. He said that “the Ilyushin-20, its reflective surface being far greater than that of an F-16, was downed by a missile launched with the S-200 system.”

Moscow also reported that the French Navy frigate FS Auvergne had fired missiles from the Mediterranean at the same time as the Israeli F-16 strikes.

Latakia, Syria’s major port city came under a missile attack on Monday, apparently downing a Russian military plane with 14 military personnel aboard.

Syrian sources claimed that the country’s air defense systems brought down a number of the missiles, which they said had been fired by Israel. Russian sources attributed the attacks to four F-16 fighter jets that had apparently flown over Lebanon and the Mediterranean to attack the port city.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that it had summoned Israeli Ambassador to Russia Gary Koren over the crash of Russian Il-20 military aircraft in Syria.

Sputnik reports:

The Il-20 aircraft has been [accidentally] downed by Syrian military forces after Israel jets put it under attack off the Syrian coast, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov stated. According to the spokesman, the Israeli jets deliberately created a dangerous situation in Latakia. He stressed that Israel's aviation control systems could not but notice the Russian aircraft as it was landing.

"Israel did not warn the command of the Russian troops in Syria about the planned operation. We received a notification via a hotline less than a minute before the strike, which did not allow the Russian aircraft to be directed to a safe zone," Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.

The strikes came within hours of Russia and Turkey announcing a joint agreement to forestall a Russian-backed government offensive in the northwestern province of Idlib that had threatened to trigger a major Western intervention and a potential confrontation between the world’s two major nuclear powers, the US and Russia.

It's becoming clear that the US-France-Israel-Saudi Arabia are not at all happy that Russia and Turkey have come to an agreement to attempt to use peaceful measures in Idlib.  The US has been threatening for the past week that any Russian-Syrian attacks on ISIS terrorists (supported by US-Israel-Saudi Arabia) in Idlib would draw a significant US-Israeli response.

The US has essentially lost the war in Syria and its attempt to over throw President Bashar al-Assad’s government has failed.  In spite of that Washington, Paris and Tel Aviv continue their illegal and indiscriminate attacks on Syria.

The shooting down of the Russian plane is further evidence that an expanded war could easily be triggered by such a spark.