Syrian Forces Launched Anti-Aircraft Missile Against Israeli Warplane. IDF Destroyed Syrian S-200 Battery

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The Syrian Air Defense Forces have launched an anti-aircraft missile against an Israeli warplane flying over Lebanon, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said on October 16.

According to the IDF, the missile didn’t hit its target.

Earlier today,an anti-aircraft missile was launched from Syria towards IDF aircraft during a routine flight over Lebanon. No hits confirmed

— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) 16 October 2017

Meanwhile, the IDF reported the Israeli Air Force destroyed a battery of the S-200 system (NATO reporting name: SA-5) of the Syrian military east of Damascus.

According to the IDF, the battery was damaged and became no longer operational.

“If anti-aircraft fire is being carried out for any military activity, we will respond as we did now,” IDF spokesman Ronen Manlis told reporters.

The tensions between Syria and Israel are furher growing as ISIS collapses around Syria. Tel Aviv sees the victory of the Syrian-Iranian-Russian alliance in Syria as a threat to its influence in the region.

UPDATE 1:

Israel allegedly notified Russia of the airstrike on the Syrian S-200 in real time.

“The Russians were notified in real time, or maybe just before [the attack],” a representative of the IDF press service said, according to the Russian state-run media outlet Sputnik.

UPDATE 2:

The Syrian Defense Ministry released a statement saying that the Syrian Air Defense Forces responded to a violation of Syria’s airspace by Israeli warplanes.

“The General Command of the Army and Armed Forces said in a statement that at 8: 51 am on Monday Israeli warplanes violated Syria’s airspace on the border with Lebanon in Baalbek area, to which “our air defenses responded and directly hit one of the jets, forcing [the enemy] to retreat.”

The Command’s statement also said that the Israeli enemy fired at 11: 38 am a number of missiles from inside the occupied territories that hit a Syrian army position in the countryside of Damascus, resulting in material damage.

The Command warned of the “dangerous repercussions” of Israel’s repeated aggression attempts, stressing Syria’s determination to continue its war against the terrorist groups, Israel’s arm in the region,” the Syrian state-run media outlet SANA reports quoting the statement.