BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian air defences opened fire in response to an Israeli act of “aggression” against a military base on Saturday and hit “more than one plane”, Syrian state media cited a military source as saying.

“The Israeli enemy entity at dawn today conducted a new aggression against one of the military bases in the central region. Our air defences confronted it and hit more than one plane,” the unidentified military source said. </s> JERUSALEM, Feb 10 (Reuters) - The Israeli military said on Saturday only one of its jets was damaged while on a mission to strike an Iranian installation that had launched a drone from Syria, denying a Syrian report that said more than one plane was hit.

“They all returned safely, except for one that crashed in Israel,” said Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus. Syrian state media had earlier quoted an unidentified military official who said Syrian air defences “hit more than one plane”. (Reporting by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Paul Tait; Editing by Paul Tait) </s> JERUSALEM, Feb 10 (Reuters) - The Israeli military said on Saturday only one of its jets was damaged while on a mission to strike an Iranian installation that had launched a drone from Syria, denying a Syrian report that said more than one plane was hit.

"They all returned safely, except for one that crashed in Israel," said Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus. Syrian state media had earlier quoted an unidentified military official who said Syrian air defences "hit more than one plane". (Reporting by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Paul Tait; Editing by Paul Tait) </s> BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian state news agency SANA said on Saturday that Syrian air defences were responding to a “new Israeli aggression” and a military source said the defences had thwarted attacks on military positions in the south of the country.

Earlier on Saturday, the Israeli military said an Israeli F-16 jet crashed in northern Israel during a mission to strike an Iranian drone installation that launched a drone into Israeli-held territory.

“The Israeli enemy has resumed aggression on some military positions in the southern region and our air defences have responded to them and thwarted the aggression,” a Syrian military source said in a statement.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israel has been targeting areas in the countryside southwest of the capital Damascus and in the eastern countryside of Homs province for several hours since dawn.

One set of raids hit positions belonging to the Syrian government and its allies in central Syria around the T4 airbase and in the Homs desert, the Britain-based Observatory said.

Another set of raids hit southwest of Damascus. </s> Israel has denied a claim by Syria that it shot down an Israeli plane carrying out pre-dawn raids on a military target near Palmyra (AFP Photo/)

Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli warplanes struck several targets in Syria early Friday, prompting retaliatory missiles launches, in the most serious incident between the two countries since the Syrian civil war began six years ago.

Syria's military said it had downed an Israeli plane and hit another as they were carrying out pre-dawn strikes near the famed desert city of Palmyra that it recaptured from jihadists this month.

"Our air defence engaged them and shot down one warplane over occupied territory, hit another one, and forced the rest to flee," the army said in a statement carried by state news agency SANA.

The Israeli army denied any planes had been struck and the Syrian government has made similar unfounded claims in the past.

"The safety of Israeli civilians or the Israeli air force aircraft was at no point compromised," army spokesman Peter Lerner told AFP.

The Israeli air force said earlier that it had carried out several strikes on Syria overnight, but that none of the ground-to-air missiles fired by Syrian forces in response had hit Israeli aircraft.

It was an unusual confirmation by the Jewish state of air raids inside Syria.

"Overnight... aircraft targeted several targets in Syria," an Israeli army statement said.

"Several anti-aircraft missiles were launched from Syria following the mission and (army) aerial defence systems intercepted one of the missiles."

None of the missiles fired from Syria hit their targets, the army added.

One missile was intercepted north of Jerusalem by Israel's Arrow air defence system, Israeli media reported.

It would be one of the first times the system has been used.

A Jordanian military source said shrapnel from one missile struck in the north of the kingdom without causing any casualties.

Both Israeli and foreign media have reported a number of Israeli air strikes inside Syria targeting arms convoys of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which fought a devastating 2006 war with Israel and is now fighting alongside the Damascus regime.

The Jewish state does not usually confirm or deny each raid but may have been led to do so this time by the circumstances of the incident.

The missile fire prompted air raid sirens to go off in the Jordan Valley during the night, the Israeli army said.

In April 2016, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted for the first time that Israel had attacked dozens of convoys transporting weapons in Syria destined for Hezbollah.

Israel and Syria are still technically at war, though the border had remained largely quiet for decades until 2011 when the Syrian conflict broke out.

Iranian-backed Hezbollah has been fighting inside Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad against the rebels.

While there has been periodic stray fire into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that has prompted retaliatory strikes, Israel has largely avoided getting sucked into the conflict directly.

Witnesses cited by the press also reported two explosions that could have been caused by the launch of the anti-missile system.

The Arrow 3 interceptor, designed to shoot down ballistic missiles, was handed to air force bases in Israel in January after successful testing by Israel and the United States.

Israel seized most of the Golan Hights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and annexed it in 1981 in a move never recognised by the international community.

Israel pays close attention to developments in the Syrian conflict for fear that it could be exploited by its arch-rival Iran to install allies close to the armistice line on the Golan and Israel's borders.

In the summer of 2006, Israel and Hezbollah fought a devastating war that killed nearly 1,200 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, and about 160 Israelis, most of them troops. </s> JERUSALEM () — Israel’s Air Force reportedly attacked a Syrian army position and a Hezbollah weapons convoy, according to reports originating in Arab media.

The reported attacks took place early Wednesday morning along the highway connecting Damascus and Beirut, and required the military airplanes to fly in Lebanese airspace.

SANA, the official news agency of the regime of President Bashar Assad, reported Wednesday in an article headlined “Israeli enemy’s air force fires two rockets on Damascus western countryside,” that there were no casualties in the attack, which it called “an attempt to divert attention from the successes achieved by the Syrian Arab army.”

The article did not mention the alleged attack on the Hezbollah weapons convoy.

The article cited an unnamed source as saying that the attacks are “a ‘desperate attempt’ by the Israeli occupation entity to raise the deteriorating morals of the Takfiri terrorist gangs after the heavy losses they have suffered in many areas, especially in the western countryside of Damascus.”

The Israel Defense Forces, as is its standard practice, has neither confirmed nor denied the reports, saying that it does not respond to foreign media reports.

The alleged attack comes three days after the Israeli Air Force struck an Islamic State-affiliated group in Syria, killing four of its members, hours after the group fired on Israeli soldiers across the border in the Golan Heights.

It was reportedly the first clash between Israel and the Islamic State. Most mortars and gunfire on Israel from Syria have been accidental spillover from the internal fighting. The IDF has responded to those with return fire.

The tension between Syria and Israel comes amid renewed fighting in the area between rebel forces and the army of Syrian President Bashar Assad in a more than five-year civil war. </s> The Israeli military has confirmed it attacked Iranian military targets in Syria, hours after carrying out a rare daylight air raid near the Damascus International Airport.

The statement was issued hours after Israeli missile defences intercepted an incoming missile over the Golan Heights in the wake of the airport raid.

“We have started striking Iranian Quds targets in Syrian territory,” the military statement said. “We warn the Syrian Armed Forces against attempting to harm Israeli forces or territory.”

Until now Israel has largely refrained from public admissions of its covert military operations in neighbouring Syria, in order to avoid large-scale involvement in the eight-year civil war. Eleven people were said to have been killed (SANA/AP)

The Syrian military said Israel carried out intensive airstrikes with successive waves of guided missiles shortly after 1am local time (11pm GMT), but added that Syrian air defences destroyed most of the missiles before they reached their targets.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday’s strikes lasted for nearly an hour and were the most intense Israeli attacks since May. It said 11 people were killed in the strikes.

The Russian military said four Syrian troops were among those killed.

On Sunday, Syrian state media said air defences repelled an Israeli air raid near the international airport south of Damascus.

State TV said Syria’s air defences “prevented” the attack from achieving its goals. It said Israel targeted six missiles on an area near Damascus International Airport, of which five were shot down and one diverted to nearby empty farmland.

Residents of the capital said they heard five explosions early on Sunday afternoon, apparently the sound of air defences firing into the air. The Israeli military said the missile strike which prompted the response was ‘pre-meditated’ (SANA/AP)

The Israeli military had initially declined to comment on the airstrike, though it said a rocket fired at the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights was intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defence system.

Israeli warplanes have used Lebanon’s airspace recently to strike deep inside Syria, including attacking a warehouse near Damascus International Airport earlier this month, according to Syrian state media.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently confirmed that Israel has struck hundreds of targets in Syria linked to Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group, including a weapons facility two weeks ago.

Iran and Hezbollah are allied with the Syrian government in the civil war.

Two hours after the reports that Israel’s Iron Dome intercepted a rocket fired toward the Golan Heights, Mr Netanyahu, who currently is on a visit to Chad, said in a statement: “We have a defined policy: to harm Iranian entrenchment in Syria and to harm anyone who tries to harm us.”

Earlier on Sunday, a roadside bomb went off in the south of Damascus without causing casualties, state media reported.

The SANA news agency said the blast targeted a military checkpoint on a main road during rush hour.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which closely monitors Syria’s war, said the bomb targeted the vehicle of a “security personality” that it did not identify.

The Observatory’s chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said it was unclear whether the individual was killed or wounded. “It was not a random act,” he added.

Attacks have been rare in Damascus since Syrian government forces captured the last rebel-held neighbourhoods and suburbs of the capital last year.

Bombings have left hundreds dead over the course of the nearly eight-year civil war. </s> Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The Il-20 aircraft was returning to a Russian base on the north-western coast of Syria (file photo)

Russia has said Syria shot down one of its military planes - but laid the blame for the deaths of the 15 personnel on board with Israel.

The defence ministry said Israeli jets put the Il-20 plane 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).

The Israel Defence Force (IDF) has expressed "sorrow" over the deaths.

However, in a statement released on Twitter, it added: "Israel holds the [Syrian President Bashar al-]Assad regime, whose military shot down the Russian plane, fully responsible for this incident."

It went on to say its jets were back in Israeli airspace by the time the missiles were launched.

Israel - which also blamed Iran and Hezbollah - 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.

The Israeli government is concerned by what it calls Iran's "military entrenchment" in Syria, as well as shipments of Iranian weapons to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is fighting alongside Syrian government forces.

What exactly happened?

The details are murky, and Russia's account of the incident has yet to be verified.

Monday's incident is reported to have occurred about 35km (22 miles) from the Syrian coast as the Ilyushin Il-20 aircraft was returning to Russia's Hmeimim airbase near the north-western city of Latakia.

Russia's Tass news agency says the Il-20 plane "disappeared during an attack by four Israeli F-16 jets on Syrian facilities in Latakia province".

Reports on Syrian state media spoke of an attack in the area shortly before the plane disappeared. According to Sana news agency, the military said it had intercepted "enemy missiles coming from the open sea towards the city of Latakia".

Syrian television also reported explosions over the sky in Latakia just before 22:00. Thirty minutes later, the Sana Facebook page reported that Syrian air defences had responded to enemy missiles.

What does Russia accuse Israel of doing?

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," a defence ministry spokesman said.

The spokesman accused Israeli pilots of "using the Russian airplane as a cover", putting it "in the line of fire coming from Syrian air defence systems".

The plane, the spokesman continued, was shot down by a Syrian missile.

"As a result of the irresponsible actions by the Israeli military, 15 Russian servicemen have died," the spokesman said.

It is not possible to verify any of these claims.

What has Israel said?

The IDF said its jets were targeting Syrian military facilities "from which systems to manufacture accurate and lethal weapons were about to be transferred on behalf of Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon".

It added the Syrian anti-aircraft missiles were "inaccurate" and "extensive". What's more, it claimed its jets were back in Israeli airspace by the time the missiles were launched.

The statement also accused the Syrian military of failing "to ensure that no Russian planes were in the air", adding it would share the relevant information with Moscow.

In an earlier phone call on Tuesday, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman the blame "fully rests with Israel", adding that Russia "reserves the right to take further steps in response".

Russia later summoned the Israeli ambassador to its foreign ministry.

A search-and-rescue operation is under way.

Are the accusations fair?

Analysis by Jonathan Marcus, BBC Defence Correspondent

Russia's anger is real. But the question is, are the Russians attributing blame fairly?

The charges are two-fold. Long-standing and up to now effective information-sharing broke down.

The Israeli Air Force has Russian-speaking air traffic controllers able to communicate with their Russian opposite numbers. But Moscow says they were informed of the Israeli raid with only one minute's notice.

Secondly Russia charges - more seriously - that the Israelis used the large radar signature of the Ilyushin turbo-prop to mask their own aircraft.

But the radar signatures of the relatively slow Ilyushin and four nimble F-16 jets are radically different.

Furthermore, the Syrian air defences should have known the Russian plane was in-bound, whatever the Israelis were doing.

There may be several contributory factors in this tragedy. Russia cannot publicly castigate its Syrian allies. In private things may be rather different.

Why is a Russian aircraft 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, according to the UK's Guardian newspaper.

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 have said 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. </s> The Syrian army said Israeli jets breached the war torn country’s airspace in the early hours of Friday morning and attacked a “military target” near Palmyra.

The jets were then reportedly targeted by Syrian anti-aircraft missiles.

According to a statement from the Syrian Army, a total of four Israeli jets breached Syrian airspace on Friday morning. Syria’s air defenses shot down one of the jets over “occupied ground” and damaged another.

The Israeli Army confirmed it had conducted airstrikes on several targets in Syria, but the IDF claim that none of the jets were damaged.

Israeli warplanes “penetrated our airspace at 2:40 a.m. (0040 GMT) via Lebanese territory and hit a military target on the way to Palmyra,” said an army statement carried by state news agency SANA.

“Our air defense engaged them and shot down one warplane over occupied territory, hit another one, and forced the rest to flee,” the army said, apparently referring to the Golan Heights.

The Syrian army also slammed Tel Aviv’s strikes as “an act of aggression” meant to assist the Takfiri Daesh terror group.

Israel’s aerial assaults are “a desperate attempt to raise their (Daesh terrorists’) deteriorating morale and divert attention away from the victories which Syrian Arab Army is making in the face of the terrorist organizations,” the statement read.

 The Syrian army recaptured Palmyra from Daesh on March 2. In January, the army accused Israel of carrying out missile strikes on the Mazzeh air base near Damascus.

The Syria army underlined its resolve to repel any future Israeli attack by “all possible means.”

Israel has carried out air raids against Syrian-based targets on many occasions, but it rarely acknowledges the attacks. On Friday, however, the Israeli military acknowledged that its jets bombed several targets in Syria.

In a statement, the military said the Syrian air force fired numerous anti-aircraft missiles at the warplanes and the Israeli air force “intercepted one of the missiles.”

The explosion caused by the incident set off sirens in the Jordan Valley of the West Bank and the blast was heard as far as Jerusalem al-Quds, according to the Israeli military statement.

The Israeli military later said in a separate statement that its aircraft were unharmed in the operation.

Israel and Syria are technically at war due to Tel Aviv’s continued occupation of the latter’s Golan Heights since 1967. Tel Aviv has also been supporting the militants operating to topple the Syrian government.

Some of the attacks have reportedly struck targets belonging to the Lebanese resistance movement of Hezbollah, which has been assisting the Syrian military in the face of the militancy.
Syrian state media cite a military source saying that the Syrian air defences hit "more than one plane" at dawn.