March 2017 Israel–Syria incident
Israel border incidents during Syrian Civil War | |||||||
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Part of Israeli–Syrian border incidents and the Iran–Israel conflict during the Syrian civil war | |||||||
An Israeli Arrow 2 missile launcher, similar to one used at the beginning of the current Israeli/Syrian conflict | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Israel | Syria | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
Israeli Air Force | Syrian Air Defense Force | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
One fighter jet shot down (Syrian claim)[1] | Unknown |
The March 2017 Israel–Syria incident took place on 17 March 2017, when Israeli Air Force struck a target in
Syria claimed to have shot down one Israeli aircraft.
Following a generic statement by the Israeli Defense Forces reading "Several anti-aircraft missiles were launched from Syria following the mission, and IDF aerial defense systems intercepted one of the missiles. At no point was the safety of Israeli civilians or the IAF aircraft compromised",[7] several news reports started speculating about the use of the Arrow system to defend jet fighters from hostile surface to air missiles. However other Israeli news publications confirmed that the initial reading of the IDF statement was wrong; in fact, the IDF said that the jet fighters were never in danger and the missiles were far from the planes. But the IDF detected Syrian S-200 missiles on course to reach Israel, so the Arrow missile system was used to prevent them falling on settled areas.[8] Indeed, a S-200, after losing its target, hence going ballistic, has approximately the size, the speed and the range of a battlefield artillery rocket such as the FROG-7, which is one of the very standard targets the Israeli missile defense is shaped around. The Jordanian Armed Forces reported that a part of the Arrow missile fell in its territory. There were no casualties in Jordan.[9]
Aftermath
On 19 March 2017, Israeli defense minister
On 19 March, an Israeli
On 25 March 2017, the Syrian government said that it will respond to future Israeli strikes on Syrian military targets with
See also
References
- ^ a b c "Syrian army says it shot down Israeli jet". Sky News. 2017-03-17. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
- ^ a b Oren Liebermann and Euan McKirdy (17 March 2017). "Israeli jets strike inside Syria; evade anti-aircraft missiles". CNN. Retrieved 2017-03-17.
- ^ "סוריה: "4 מטוסים תקפו מוצב צבאי. תהיה תגובה ישירה"". Ynet (in Hebrew). 2017-03-17. Retrieved 2017-03-17.
- ^ Opall-Rome, Barbara (2017-03-17). "Israel's Arrow scores first operational hit — but against what?". Defense News. Retrieved 2017-03-17.
- ^ Opall-Rome, Barbara (2017-03-20). "Israel explains Arrow intercept of Syrian SAM". Defense News. Retrieved 2017-03-20.
- ^ "IDF denies claim that Syria shot down Israeli jet". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2017-03-17.
- ^ "Israeli Jets Attack Targets in Syria, Shoot Down Missile". Voice of America. 2017-03-17. Retrieved 2017-03-27.
- ^ "רוסיה דורשת הבהרות מישראל; נתניהו: מונעים נשק מתקדם לחיזבאללה". Ynet (in Hebrew). 2017-03-17. Retrieved 2017-03-17.
- ^ Weizman, Steve. "Netanyahu: Syria raids targeted 'advanced' Hezbollah arms". Agence France-Presse via Yahoo News. Retrieved 2017-03-17.
- ^ a b "Syria threatens to fire Scud missiles at Israel — report". Times of Israel. 2017-03-25. Retrieved 2017-03-25.
- ^ Zitun, Yoav (March 22, 2017). "Initial investigation findings point to human error in IDF drone crash". Ynetnews – via www.ynetnews.com.
- ^ Reed, John; Solomon, Erika (22 March 2017). "Israeli air raids in Syria raise fears of wider conflict". Financial Times. Retrieved 2017-03-22.