Syrian War Report – Jan. 23, 2019: Syria Threatens To Strike ‘Tel Aviv Airport’
Late on January 22, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) repelled a major attack by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda) in the Idlib de-escalation zone.
According to the Russian military, about 150-200 militants supported by 15-20 vehicles equipped with machine guns attacked SAA positions in the areas of Abu al-Duhur and Abu Sharja. They also employed at least one suicide vehicle borne explosive device. The militants overran the first line of defense and penetrated about 1.5-2 km deep into the SAA-controlled area.
Then, the military deployed reinforcements and with support of artillery units SAA troops repelled the advance and forced militants to withdraw from the recently captured positions.
According to pro-SAA sources, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham members suffered significant casualties.
12 service members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were killed in the January 20th Israeli airstrikes on Damascus’s International Airport, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on January 22. The SOHR claimed that the total death toll is 21 people: 6 Syrian Army troops, 12 IRGC service members and 3 other non-Syrian nationals.
On January 22, Syria’s envoy to the United Nations warned that if the UN Security Council did not put a stop to Israeli strikes on his country, Syria would retaliate on its own.
“Syria would practice its legitimate right of self-defense and respond to the Israeli aggression on Damascus International Airport in the same way on Tel Aviv airport,” Bashar Jaafari said.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) claimed that the strikes were aimed at Iranian targets in the country. According to the very same version, IDF aircraft attacked Syrian military positions because they were responding ‘violently’ to Israeli strikes on Iranian forces. It should be noted that the SOHR claims contradict with the data provided by the Russian Defense Ministry. It said that 4 Syrian service members were killed in the attack.
The Russia-delivered S-300 system was not employed by the Syrian military during the encounter. According to Russia’s Kommersant newspaper, the reason is that Syrian S-300 crews are still not ready to operate the S-300 air defense system themselves. According to the report, the S-300 crews have not passed firing exams yet. The newspaper speculated that the crews would not be ready earlier than March 2019. Then, one battalion of the S-300 air defense system will reportedly be deployed in the T4 airbase area.
Citing its own sources, Kommersant stated that Russia is not going to change its current attitude towards Israeli strikes on Syria as long as Russian personnel are not near the targets being hit.
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Should have done it years ago, after every Zionist attack. Our friends in the Kikenreich are very good at dishing it out. Not so good at taking it.
As I have said at an earlier occasion A Syrian strike on Israeli territory will require a large amount of rockets to saturate the various Israeli air defense systems. From a military point of view a strike on an IDF airbase possibly taking out some of their aircraft out would be more effective. Such a strike would also induce the USA to get much more involved. “Wollt ihr den totalen Krieg?!
good idea – but not instead – AS WELL –
I guess its wrong to say- but its irresistable – I hope Syria bombs Israeli airport into smithereens – and I’m not even going to say what I hope Iran blows up – in Israel –
Israel must stop ‘arbitrary strikes’ in Syria – Zakharova
https://mobile.almasdarnews.com/article/israel-must-stop-arbitrary-strikes-in-syria-zakharova/
“The practice of arbitrary strikes on the territory of a sovereign state, in this case, we are talking about Syria, should be ruled out,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, in answer to a question from Russian news agency TASS about recent Israeli air strikes on Syria.
“We should never allow Syria, which has suffered years of armed conflict, to be turned into an arena where geopolitical scores are settled,” TASS cited her as saying.
Zakharova’s comments came shortly after her warning about the dangerous situation brewing inside the Idlib Governorate.”
I believe her use of the word arbitrary indicates that Russia knows these israeli attacks are mainly for provocation.
There are no random attacks anymore – S300 delivery stopped all that.
Syrians together with Egypt tried on 1967 and failed badly.
It came to a head with a full-scale air and artillery battle between Israel and Syria on 7 April 1967. Israel routed the Syrians.
They cannot afford alone, for the second time.
1967 Six Day War – in 60 seconds-BBC News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ntxmxnd9wI
“They [the Syrians] cannot afford [to attack Israel] alone, for the second time.”
Actually third time: Syria was defeated in Yom Kippur War in the seventies, with annexation of Syria’s Golan Heights by Israel. The U$ regime under Kissinger and Nixon replaced Israeli warplanes faster than Syria could shoot them down. And U$ legislators are pressing for Israel’s illegal annexation of Syrian Golan to be declared Legal.
But there is a huge difference between Syria today and the Middle East today compared to the 1960s and 1970s. Syria, Iran and Hezb’Allah have fought off two invasions of Lebanon by Israel, and an 8 year invasion by a NATZO army of 300,000 fanatic Muslim mercenaries. Russia is now a major presence in the ME and a major ally of a developing Arch of Solidarity across the ME: Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran. As for the Anglo Zio Capitalist powers which founded and propped up Israel, Britain and France are failed states and the U$A is teetering on the brink of bankrupcy.
As always, quite predictable behavior on the part of Israel. Some caution was evident in the immediate aftermath of the S300 installation. Since then we see the usual pattern of probing and gradual escalation. In addition to the usual Israeli craziness there may be more at stake. That is, the situation in Idlib. Israel’s proxy al-Nusra appears to be emerging in a strong position there. Exactly what Israel’s operations there are I don’t know. However they do seem to be very sensitive and secretive involving high stakes as well as difficult to support. I doubt Israel wants a renewal of the operation to retake Idlib by the Syrian government. These attacks to serve as a useful distraction.
The importance of their Idlib operations may have been a factor in the Israeli shoot-down of the IL-20. One wonders whether or not Russia has replaced the intelligence gathering function which that aircraft served. If not, that would be a serious mistake in my mind.
On Sept. 6, 2007, ten F-15I and F-16 jets attacked a nuclear facility being built in Syria. The success of that mission, dubbed “Silent Tone” (previously unofficially named “Operation Orchard” by international media), was largely attributed to effectiveness of the Israeli Electronic Warfare platforms that supported the air strike and made the Syrian radars blind: some sources believe that Operation Orchard saw the baptism of fire of the Suter airborne network system against Syrian radar systems from some ELINT aircraft.
On September 18, 2018 the Russian Il-20M was Shot Down By A Syrian S-200 Missile System, with 15 personnel on board.
Russian President Putin was reported as saying the incident was, “A chain of tragic accidental circumstances” in quotes published by the BBC World News and other news outlets.
Since then, the imminent operation to retake Idlib, is postponed indefinitely.
The ZioNazis should not count on Russian forbearance forever. Russia has its geopolitical reasons for attempting to work with Erdogan, who Putin full well knows is a crazy dog. If Russia can get Erdogan to do the dirty work of cleaning up the his terrorist proxies then what’s better than that.
When, if, the return volley comes Israels’ way what will Israel look like? Israel is tiny. Better dust off those dual citizen passports and get out while the getting is good. Who would want to die for Netanyahu?