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An Israeli fighter jet was shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft fire on Saturday morning, following a renewed set of strikes that mark a serious escalation in the conflict.



Israel's military said the new strikes were a retaliation to an Iranian drone launched from Syria into Israel, which was intercepted.

"A combat helicopter successfully intercepted an Iranian UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] that was launched from Syria and infiltrated Israel," the military said on Saturday, adding that the drone had been "under surveillance until the interception".



Iran is an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and Israel is concerned about its growing military presence in the country.

Israeli military spokesperson Jonathan Cornicus said Iran was "responsible for this severe violation of Israeli sovereignty" in a tweet shortly after the incident.



In response the Israel Defense Forces launched strikes on Syrian aerial defense systems and Iranian targets in Syria.</s>The IDF warned Syria and Iran against ‘violating Israeli sovereignty,’ otherwise they would pay a heavy price. The Israeli military also insisted that Israel does not seek an escalation in tensions in the region.

“Iran and Syria are playing with fire,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Twitter. The military added that it acts “with determination” against “the attempt of the Iranian-Syrian attack and the violation of Israeli sovereignty.” “The IDF is prepared for a variety of scenarios and will continue to act as necessary.”

The IDF lashed out at the Syrian military, accusing the state of interference in the Israeli-Iranian incident, as well as at Iran for “using Syria as a launchpad for activity against Israel.”

However, the IDF insisted that Israel does not seek escalation with the two states. “We are willing, prepared and capable to exact a heavy price from anyone that attacks us, however we are not looking to escalate the situation," the IDF said, insisting that what they’ve done was merely “a defensive effort triggered by an Iranian act of aggression and we are defending our airspace our sovereignty and civilians."

Tensions between Israel, Iran, and Syria have been heating up since early Saturday after the IDF intercepted an Iranian UAV, which crossed from the territory of Syria into Israel. The Israeli military responded by targeting a Syrian military base, where they believed the operator of the drone to be located. Later that day, an Israeli F-16 fighter jet crashed after Damascus responded with anti-aircraft fire to an Israeli operation in its territory. The pilots ejected and survived the incident.

In response, the IDF said it struck 12 Iranian and Syrian targets in Syria, including air defense batteries, adding that that during the attack, “anti-aircraft missiles were fired towards Israel, triggering alarms that were heard in Northern Israel.”

Following an exchange of fire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held security consultations, approving the necessary actions in real time following the incidents, official Israeli sources told Haaretz.

Air traffic at Ben Gurion International Airport, 20km from Tel Aviv, was halted for around 15-20 minutes amid security tensions, Israeli media reported.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!</s>Tehran has dismissed Tel Aviv’s claims concerning an Iranian UAV and a downed Israeli jet as “ridiculous.” An Iranian commander also warned Iran could unleash “hell” on the “Zionist regime” and destroy all US bases in the area.

He added that Iranian officials are acting in Syria only as advisers and do so “at the request of the… legitimate and lawful government.”

What’s more, any “aggressive actions” by Tel Aviv would trigger a serious response. That is because Iran is capable of creating “hell for the Zionists,” Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the deputy head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps, said.

Qassemi added that Syria is a sovereign state and its government and armed forces, have a “legitimate right to defend [its] territorial integrity and counter any kind of foreign aggression.”

In the early hours of Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed they intercepted an Iranian UAV, which crossed from the territory of Syria into Israel. In response, Israel conducted airstrikes on Iranian positions in Syria.

The Israeli military later said that one Israeli F-16 crashed due to the “massive Syrian anti-air fire.” The pilots ejected and survived the incident. In response to the crash, the IDF said it struck 12 Iranian and Syrian targets in Syria, including air defense batteries. Damascus denounced Israeli actions as “aggression.”

Tensions between Israel and Iran rapidly flared up following the Saturday incident. The IDF warned Syria and Iran against “violating” its sovereignty by saying that both countries would pay a heavy price if they defy this warning. It also said that Tehran and Damascus are “playing with fire.”</s>TEL AVIV — The decision by the Iran-led “Shiite Axis” in the region to send an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) into Israeli territory was a dangerous miscalculation by Tehran and its puppets in Syria and Lebanon.

Following strategic victories over the Islamic State and Turkey-backed rebels inside Syria, an overly confident Iran apparently decided to test regional boundaries and its own capabilities by sending the UAV over the border into the Jewish state.

Aviation analysts described the Iranian drone as a new stealthy model similar in design to the American RQ-170 Sentinel spy drone that Iran claimed to have shot down and seized in December 2011. It’s likely the Iranians were testing the model’s ability to penetrate Israeli airspace undetected, making Israel’s discovery of the UAV a remarkable display of regional military superiority.

Iran, Syria and Hezbollah have outrageously been attempting to frame Israel’s massive airstrikes as unprovoked aggression, even fueling conspiracies that no drone was intercepted. In reality, the timeline is self-evident. Following Iran’s ill-conceived provocative UAV move, Israeli jets pounded an Iran-controlled airbase outside the Syrian city of Palmyra that Israel says was utilized to launch the drone. Syrian forces then launched anti-aircraft missiles, reportedly forcing an Israeli F-16 pilot to abandon his jet and sending Israel’s northern communities into bomb shelters. Israel in turn dispatched bombers into Syria to target a series of important Syrian and Iranian military installations, prompting more anti-aircraft fire from Iran-backed Syrian forces.

The Shiite Axis operational to Israel’s north – Iran, Syria and Hezbollah – have been celebrating the incident that resulted in the F-16 abandonment as a victory. “This is the beginning of a new strategic era which puts an end to the violation of Syrian airspace and territory,” Hezbollah claimed in a statement published by Lebanon’s ANI news agency. The Israel Air Force will indeed need to investigate what went wrong and must calibrate accordingly. However, Hezbollah’s celebrations are more posturing than realistic and seem designed to mask the extent of Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes.

Israel will undoubtedly continue to act in Syria and Lebanon when necessary to ensure the Jewish state’s security. Meanwhile, Israel’s strikes in Syria have been described in news media reports as not only its most serious engagement in that country since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, but the most devastating blow dealt to the Syrians – and by extension to their Iranian overlords – since perhaps the first Lebanon war in 1982.

Intelligence Minister Israel Katz said it would take Iran and Syria some time to “digest” the extent of the Israeli raids. “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,” he said. “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.”

Iran’s drone fleet is an important part of its war arsenal against Israel. Hezbollah has previously threatened to send explosives-laden drones to target Israel’s nuclear plant and civilian infrastructure. Only last week, Iran announced the opening of a drone manufacturing facility meant to mass produce UAVs that can carry smart munitions to attack various targets.

It also must be recalled that Iran’s dispatching of the drone yesterday followed weeks of escalating rhetoric in which Hezbollah repeatedly threatened to attack Israeli offshore gas platforms, IDF troops operating along the northern border and dispatch fighters to storm the Israeli border.

In reacting as it did, Israel sent Iran, Syria and Hezbollah a clear message that they will suffer enormously following any future provocation. The Shiite Axis would do well to check its inflated hubris and think twice before messing with Israel again.

Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.</s>JERUSALEM, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Syrian anti-aircraft fire shot down an Israeli fighter jet on Saturday and Israel struck an Iranian target that had launched an unmanned aircraft into its airspace from Syria, the Israeli military said.

“IDF (Israel Defence Forces) has targeted the Iranian control systems in Syria that sent the #UAV into Israeli airspace. Massive Syrian Anti-Air fire, one F16 crashed in Israel, pilots safe,” Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said on Twitter.

Israeli media said the jet crashed in northern Israel. (Reporting by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Paul Tait)</s>JERUSALEM/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Anti-aircraft fire downed an Israeli warplane returning from a bombing raid on Iran-backed positions in Syria on Saturday in the most serious confrontations yet between Israel and Iranian-backed forces based across the border.

The F-16, one of at least eight Israeli planes despatched in response to what Israel said was an Iranian drone’s incursion into its airspace earlier in the day, was hit by a Syrian anti-aircraft missile and crashed in northern Israel, an Israeli official told Reuters.

Both pilots ejected and were injured, one critically.

Israel then launched a second and more intensive air raid, hitting what it said were 12 Iranian and Syrian targets in Syria, including Syrian air defense systems.

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said the downing of the plane marked the “start of a new strategic phase” that would limit Israel’s ability to enter Syrian airspace.

Iran’s involvement in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad in a nearly 7-year-old civil war - including the deployment of Iran-backed forces near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights - has alarmed Israel, which has said it would counter any threat.

But Israel and Syria signaled they were not seeking wider conflict, even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rushed to military headquarters in Tel Aviv and the pro-Assad alliance pledged a strong response to any Israeli “terrorist action”.

“Israel seeks peace but we will continue to defend ourselves steadfastly against any attack against us or any attempt by Iran to establish itself against us in Syria,” Netanyahu said in a televised statement.

Russia, whose forces began intervening on behalf of Assad in 2015, expressed its concern and urged both sides to exercise restraint and avoid escalation.

Netanyahu said he had spoken by telephone with Russian President Vladimir Putin and that they agreed Israel-Russia military coordination in regard to Syria would continue.

Putin told Netanyahu in the phone call that there was a need to avoid any steps that would lead to a new confrontation in the region, Interfax news agency reported.

A Western diplomat in the region said: “My impression is that it seems to be contained at this point. I don’t think anybody wants to escalate further.”

A Pentagon spokesman said the United States fully supported Israel’s right to defend itself, and a State Department spokeswoman said the United States is “deeply concerned” about the “escalation of violence over Israel’s border.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is closely watching the “alarming” military escalation throughout Syria and calls on all sides to exercise restraint and work for an immediate and unconditional de-escalation of violence, a U.N. spokesman said.

CHAIN OF EVENTS

Saturday’s chain of events began at 4:30 a.m. (0230 GMT) when an Israeli Apache helicopter shot down an Iranian drone over the northern town of Beit Shean, the Israeli military said.

The drone had been sighted taking off from a base in Syria, and was intercepted after it crossed into Israeli territory, spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said.

Israeli planes then struck an Iranian installation in Syria from which, the Israeli military said, the unmanned aircraft had been operated.

The Israeli military released grainy black and white footage of what it said was the drone’s control vehicle in Syria being destroyed.

The F-16 crashed on its return from the mission, coming down in an empty field near Harduf, east of Haifa.

“We heard a big explosion and then sirens. We didn’t know what was happening, we heard helicopters and planes,” said Yosi Sherer, 51, who was staying at a hostel in Beit Shean.

Flights at Tel Aviv’s international airport were briefly halted.

The area was quiet by mid-afternoon.

Conricus said missile remnants were found near the crash site. “We don’t know yet if it’s an SA-5 or SA-17, but it’s a Syrian anti-aircraft missile,” he said.

Israel then launched a second bombing raid in Syria.

The pro-Assad military alliance said Israel had attacked a drone base in central Syria but denied any of its drones had entered Israeli airspace. Iran rejected the Israeli version of events as “ridiculous”.

Israeli security forces examine the remains of an F-16 Israeli war plane near the Israeli village of Harduf, Israel February 10, 2018. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

David Ivry, a former Israeli Air Force chief, told Reuters he believed it was the first time an Israeli F-16 was brought down since Israel began using the jets in the 1980s.

AIR SUPERIORITY

Israel has long maintained air superiority in the region, mounting air strikes in Syria on a regular basis, targeting suspected weapons shipments to Hezbollah.

Hezbollah said in a statement: “Today’s developments mean the old equations have categorically ended.”

Iranian and Iran-backed Shi’ite forces, including Hezbollah, have deployed widely in Syria in support of Assad. Iran’s military chief warned Israel last October against breaching Syrian airspace and territory.

Netanyahu, visiting the Golan on Tuesday, peered across the border into Syria and in public remarks warned Israel’s enemies not to test its resolve.

An official in the pro-Assad alliance said after the downing of the F-16 that a “message” had been sent to Israel. But he added: “I do not believe matters will develop to a regional war.”

The Israeli military said it did not seek escalation, calling its action a defensive response to an Iranian act of aggression.

The U.S. administration has backed Israel’s hawkish stance on Iran and declared containing Tehran’s influence an objective of its Syria policy. On a visit to Israel last month, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence called Iran the world’s “leading state sponsor of terror”.

Pentagon spokesman Adrian Rankine-Galloway said the United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself.

“We share the concerns of many throughout the region that Iran’s destabilizing activities ... threaten international peace and security, and we seek greater international resolve in countering Iran’s malign activities,” Rankine-Galloway said.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is expected to visit the region in the coming week to discuss Syria and other issues, and is scheduled to visit Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and other countries. Netanyahu said he and Tillerson discussed the flare-up on Saturday.

Tensions also have spiked across the frontier between Israel and Lebanon over Israeli plans for a border wall, and Lebanese plans to exploit an offshore energy block partly located in disputed waters.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 war and has occupied it since, annexing the territory in 1981 in a move not recognized internationally.

Slideshow (3 Images)

There has been an uneasy standoff since a ceasefire that followed a war in 1973, with United Nations observer forces manning a buffer zone between the two armies.

In November, Israel said it had shot down a Syrian reconnaissance drone over the demilitarized zone, and on Feb. 8 shots were fired from Syrian territory at an Israeli drone, hitting a house in Majdal Shams, in Israeli-occupied Golan.</s>JERUSALEM, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Syrian anti-aircraft fire shot down an Israeli fighter jet on Saturday and Israel struck an Iranian target that had launched an unmanned aircraft into its airspace from Syria, the Israeli military said.

"IDF (Israel Defence Forces) has targeted the Iranian control systems in Syria that sent the #UAV into Israeli airspace. Massive Syrian Anti-Air fire, one F16 crashed in Israel, pilots safe," Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said on Twitter.

Israeli media said the jet crashed in northern Israel. (Reporting by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Paul Tait)</s>JERUSALEM, Israel – Israel shot down an Iranian drone over Israeli territory early Saturday morning, sparking a series of events that many feared could lead to an escalation in hostilities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Iranian drone incident on Saturday shows that "our warnings were 100 percent correct.

"I have been warning for some time about the dangers of Iran's military entrenchment in Syria," Netanyahu said in a statement released Saturday evening. "Iran seeks to use Syrian territory to attack Israel for its professed goal of destroying Israel. This morning Iran brazenly violated Israel's sovereignty. They dispatched an Iranian drone from Syrian territory into Israel. And this demonstrates that our warnings were 100% correct. Israel holds Iran and its Syrian hosts responsible for today's aggression. We will continue to do whatever is necessary to protect our sovereignty and our security."

In response to the drone penetration, Israel targeted a number of Iranian military sites in Syria, including its "aircraft's launch components in Syrian territory," the IDF said.

"The IDF sees the Iranian attack and the Syrian response as a severe and irregular violation of Israeli sovereignty," the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement following the initial incident.

During the attack, Syria fired multiple anti-aircraft missiles at IAF aircraft.

An Israeli F-16 crashed inside Israel, but the pilots were able to eject and land inside Israel. One pilot is in serious but stable condition; the second was injured lightly.

 

 Israel then mounted a second – what the IDF termed a "large-scale attack" – against the Syrian air defense system and Iranian targets inside Syria. According to a statement, they hit 12 targets, including three aerial defense batteries and four targets that are part of Iran's military establishment in Syria.

The anti-aircraft missiles fired toward Israel triggered air raid sirens, sending residents of northern Israel to bomb shelters early in the morning.

But by midday tourists were back out enjoying the unseasonably warm weather in Israel.

The IDF said it would "act determinately against such severe violations of Israeli sovereignty by Iran and Syria."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called an emergency meeting of his security cabinet on the Sabbath – a day when much of Israel is closed.

Last week, during a visit to the northern border, Netanyahu said Israel wants peace but was prepared for any scenario.

According to the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, the military alliance of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Iran and Hezbollah, warned Israel that any further act of what it called "terrorism" would elicit a "severe and serious response."

Iran accused Israel of lying about the drone entering Israeli air space, saying it uses drones to fight ISIS in Syria.

In a conference call, Brig. General (ret.) Yossi Kupperwasser, former director-general of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs and former head of the IDF's Intelligence Research and Assessment Division, told journalists he believes what happened this morning was "an attempt of the Iranians to shape the situation in Syria toward the end of the civil war" for their own interests.

"They want to turn Syria into an Iranian base from which they can threaten Israel both with their military capabilities and with their terror-supported capabilities," he explained. "They also want to turn Syria into an area from which they can transfer weapons to their surrogates, mainly Hezbollah."

 

 According to Kupperwasser, because Israel has been trying hard to prevent that from happening, Iran is upping the ante by doing two things it hadn't done previously: attempting to strike or attack inside Israel, as they did this morning using the UAV, and attempting to build Iranian military industry inside Lebanon to provide Hezbollah with advanced weaponry.

Netanyahu discussed these matters with Russian President Putin on his recent trip to Moscow. But Kupperwasser said obviously Russia didn't put restrictions on Iran.

"Israel responded in a very strong manner and in the context of this exchange we lost a plane. Clearly it didn't stop Israel from making sure its messages were received on the other side – that we will not tolerate this kind of thing," he said.

He added that the Russians, Iranians and Syrians "will have to study" the incident. And that it showed that Israel is the only power in the Middle East willing to confront Iran.</s>JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Syrian anti-aircraft fire shot down an Israeli fighter jet on Saturday and Israel struck an Iranian target that had launched an unmanned aircraft into its airspace from Syria, the Israeli military said.

“IDF (Israel Defence Forces) has targeted the Iranian control systems in Syria that sent the #UAV into Israeli airspace. Massive Syrian Anti-Air fire, one F16 crashed in Israel, pilots safe,” Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said on Twitter.

Israeli media said the jet crashed in northern Israel.</s>JERUSALEM, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Syrian anti-aircraft fire shot down an Israeli fighter jet on Saturday and Israel struck an Iranian target that had launched an unmanned aircraft into its airspace from Syria, the Israeli military said.

“IDF (Israel Defence Forces) has targeted the Iranian control systems in Syria that sent the #UAV into Israeli airspace. Massive Syrian Anti-Air fire, one F16 crashed in Israel, pilots safe,” Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said on Twitter.

Israeli media said the jet crashed in northern Israel. (Reporting by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Paul Tait)
The Israeli Army says that it shot down a Syrian UAV manufactured in Iran and, in response, it bombed the Tiyas Military Airbase in Homs Governorate, Syria, where it was launched from.