Pieces are being picked-up both literally and figuratively on Sunday following Saturday’s warfare that included the participation of four nations: Israel-Iran-Russia-Syria. The weekend’s events are exactly what observers have long feared could be the catalyst that ignites a major conflagration in the region. It apparently began when an Iranian drone was intercepted by an Israeli Apache helicopter over northern Israel after having flown first from Syria to Jordan. Israel air force jet fighters were immediately dispatched to destroy the drone’s launch site in a large-scale raid inside Syria, but when the mission was complete and the F-16s were heading back to Israel, a barrage of Russian-made S-5 missiles locked-on to one of the jets and succeeded in landing a fatal shot. The pilots were able to maneuver the damaged aircraft to Israeli territory where the pilots ejected – one receiving serious injuries — and the craft was destroyed. In a statement regarding the scope of the original retaliatory attack by the Israeli air force, the Israeli military (IDF) reported that, “Twelve targets, including three aerial defense batteries and four Iranian targets that are part of Iran’s military establishment in Syria were attacked,” the targets including Russian-made S-5 and S-17 surface-to-air missile batteries. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the organization that has been the primary monitor of military activity in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011, reported six deaths in the Israeli retaliatory raid, including “at least six members of the Syrian regime and its allies… of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities.” On Saturday, the IDF released photos and information about the base where the drone was launched, identifying it as the Syrian Tiyas Military Airbase, an Iranian base being operated on Syrian soil by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force. Military and political echelons are now dissecting the day’s events, trying to determine what it was all about. One emerging line of thought is that the Iranians sent the drone into Israeli air space in order to lure the retaliatory mission so that operational procedures and strategic data could be gathered for future purposes.
This holiday season, give to:
Truth and understanding
The Media Line's intrepid correspondents are in Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Pakistan providing first-person reporting.
They all said they cover it.
We see it.
We report with just one agenda: the truth.
