Israel-IranIsrael destroys Iranian drone, hits targets in Syria after losing F-16
For the first time, Iran sent a military drone from one of its bases in Syria, in response to which Israel, for the first time, bombed Iranian targets in Syria, killing several Iranian soldiers. An Israeli jet was shot down by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile, and in response Israel bombed and destroyed nearly half of Syria’s air defense systems, in addition to attacking other Syrian and Iranian targets.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel “will defend itself against any attack and any attempt to harm our sovereignty.” He was speaking at the weekly Cabinet meeting about events on Saturday morning that began with an Iranian drone flying over Israeli airspace and ended with Israel bombing twelve targets in Syria and losing an F-16 fighter jet that crashed in Israel.
At approximately 4:25 a.m. Saturday morning Israel time, an Israeli helicopter intercepted an Iranian drone which entered Israeli airspace near Kfar Ruppin in the Beit Shean Valley, south of the Sea of Galilee. The drone, according to the Israeli military, was dispatched from the Iranian controlled T-4 base in Palmyra in eastern Syria.
Bicom reports that shortly after the drone was intercepted, Israeli jets bombed Iranian targets in Syria, focusing on the drone’s mobile command and control center, during which an Israeli F-16 fighter was hit by shrapnel from an exploding anti-aircraft missile while returning over Israeli territory. The pilot and navigator ejected from the aircraft and landed within Israel. The pilot was seriously injured (his situation has since stabilized).
At approximately 8:45 a.m., Israeli fighter jets reportedly bombed twelve targets in Syria, including Syrian aerial defense systems and additional Iranian targets. During the second attack, additional anti-aircraft missiles were launched at the Israeli fighter jets, and sirens were sounded in northern Israel.
This morning IDF spokesperson Lt-Col. Jonathan Conricus told BBC Radio 4’s Today program: “What we did over the weekend was respond to an act of aggression which was instigated by Iran. We responded by delivering a blow to the Syrian air defense array, specifically the ones that fired missiles toward our planes, and the Iranian act of aggression that emanated from Syrian territory.”
Conricus added that among those targets hit were Iranian military targets related to the “Iranian efforts to establish a military presence in Syria, so-called forward operating basis that they have been working significantly on for the past years since the war in Syria started. What we’re trying to do is deliver a clear message to Iran that [an Iranian presence in Syria] is not tolerable.”
Minister of Intelligence Israel Katz told Israeli Army Radio that the scale of the Israeli retaliation had caught Iran by surprise, saying: “They, and we, know what we hit and it will take them some time to digest, understand, and ask how Israel knew how to hit those sites. These were concealed sites and we have intelligence agencies and the ability to know everything that is going on there and yesterday we proved that.”
