MOSCOW – A Russian military was shot down by Syria’s air defense over the Mediterranean Sea because Israel’s F-16 fighters used it as cover, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Maj-Gen Igor Konashenkov told the media on Tuesday.
Moscow said Israeli jets put the Ilyushin-20 aircraft into the path of Syrian air defence systems on Monday after failing to give Moscow enough warning of a strike on Syrian targets.
The Il-20 disappeared off the radar at about 23:00 local time (20:00 GMT), about 35km (22 miles) from the Syrian coast as it was returning to Russia’s Hmeimim airbase near the north-western city of Latakia.
According to Sana news agency, the military said it had intercepted “enemy missiles coming from the open sea towards the city of Latakia”.
In a statement, Russia said Israel’s “irresponsible actions” were to blame, saying it was given less than a minute’s warning ahead of the strikes, which was not enough time to get the military surveillance plane out of the way.
“The Israeli planes deliberately created a dangerous situation for surface ships and aircraft in the area,” the defence ministry spokesman said.
“As a result of the irresponsible actions by the Israeli military, 15 Russian servicemen have died,” the spokesman said.
“Moscow views Israeli steps, which led to the downing of Russian military’s Ilyushin-20 aircraft, as hostile and reserves the right to retaliate,” he added.
A search-and-rescue operation was under way.
Israel expresses ‘sorrow’ over Russian deaths
Israeli Air Force, in a tweet, expressed sorrow for the death of the aircrew members of the Russian plane. “Israel holds the Assad regime, whose military shot down the Russian plane, fully responsible for this incident,” it said.
“Extensive and inaccurate Syrian anti-aircraft (Surface to Air missile) fire caused the Russian plane to be hit and downed,” it further said while quoting an ‘initial inquiry’ of the incident.
The statement followed a phone call by Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman, in which he said the blame “fully rests with Israel”.
Russia later summoned the Israeli ambassador to its foreign ministry.
Israel rarely acknowledges carrying out strikes on Syria, but an Israeli military official recently said it had hit more than 200 Iranian targets in Syria over the past 18 months.
Russian forces in Syria
Russia began military strikes in Syria in 2015 after a request from President Bashar al-Assad, who has stayed in power despite seven years of civil war which has so far killed more than 350,000 people.
The Russian military said in April of this year it had also spent 18 months helping to rebuild the air defence system.
Hmeimim is Russia’s main base for air strikes on rebel groups in Syria – strikes that have enabled President Assad’s forces to recover much lost ground since 2015.
Russia says its air strikes only target terrorists, but activists claim they mainly hit mainstream rebel fighters and civilians.
According to The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, at least 7,928 civilians and 10,069 combatants have been killed in Russian strikes.
Russia has also suffered personnel losses, including the deaths of 39 people when a Russian military transport plane crashed as it attempted to land at Hmeimim in March.
