BFF-40 Russia says ‘misled’ by Israel in plane downing over Syria

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RUSSIA-SYRIA-ISRAEL-AVIATION-CONFLICT

Russia says ‘misled’ by Israel in plane downing over Syria

MOSCOW, Sept 23, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The Russian military on Sunday said
“misleading” information from the Israeli airforce caused the downing of a
Russian plane in Syria, and denounced the “adventurism” of Israeli pilots.

Military spokesman Igor Konashenkov presented the results of an
investigation of how a Russian Ilyushin-20 with 15 troops on board was shot
down by a Syrian air defence missile on September 17.

Moscow has accused Israel’s fighter pilots of using the bigger Ilyushin as
cover, resulting in Syria’s Soviet-era S-200 air defence system interpreting
the Russian plane as a target.

Israel denied this version of events and its air force commander flew to
Moscow following the incident, which President Vladimir Putin called a result
of a “chain of tragic accidental circumstances.”

It was the deadliest known case of friendly fire between Syria and key
backer Russia since Moscow’s game-changing 2015 military intervention.

Konashenkov said the Russian military received a call from Israeli command
at 1839 GMT warning that Israel would be striking “north of Syria”, where the
Il-20 surveillance aircraft was monitoring the Idlib de-escalation zone.

Russia ordered its plane back to base. Then, “one minute” after Israel’s
call, its F-16 planes struck targets in Latakia in western Syria, he said.

“The misleading (information) by the Israeli officer regarding the location
of the strikes made it impossible to guide the Il-20 to a safe location,”
said Konashenkov.

As the Il-20 was landing near Latakia, one of the F-16 planes “began
manoeuvres” at 1859 GMT “getting closer to the Il-20”, which was interpreted
as a repeat attack by the Syrian air defence and resulted in it being shot
down, he said.

“Monitoring the Il-20, the Israeli fighters used it as cover from the anti-
aircraft missiles” and continued to patrol the area long after the Russian
plane was shot down, he said.

Actions by the Israeli pilots “either speak of their unprofessionalism or
criminal negligence at the very least,” Konashenkov said, reiterating that
Israeli airforce was fully responsible for the downing of the plane.

He said the “adventurism” of the Israeli military could have even put in
danger civilian planes which use the same airspace to land at the nearby
Hmeimim aerodrome.

“This is a very ungrateful response to everything Russia has done for
Israel,” he said.

BSS/AFP/MRI/1931 HRS