A civil Airbus-320 was trying to land at Damascus airport when Israeli F-16 fighter jets struck Damascus’ suburbs early Thursday, putting 172 passengers on board in danger.
The Syrian military said earlier they had thwarted hostile targets above Damascus, adding that the attack had been launched by Israeli forces from the Golan Heights.
The Russian Ministry of Defense says Israeli F-16 fighter jets carried out strikes with eight air-to-surface missiles on Damascus’ suburbs early Thursday, without entering Syrian airspace, Sputnik reported.
According to the Russian military, a civil Airbus-320 with 172 passengers on board was trying to land at Damascus airport during the Israeli airstrikes that night, but landed instead at the Russian airbase in Hmeymim.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry’s spokesman, it has already become a common practice for the Israeli air force to use civil aircraft to shield their own fighter jets from the Syrian air defense systems.
Eight troops were injured and some material damage was caused as a result of Thursday morning’s airstrikes on Damascus and other Syrian cities, a Syrian military source said earlier.
The military source confirmed the attack was launched from the Golan Heights, part of which has been occupied by ‘Israel’ since 1967, and from southern Lebanon’s airspace. ‘Israel’ has remained silent about who was responsible for the strikes.
According to media reports, the strikes targeted Damascus’s Mezzah district, where the Al-Mezzah Military Airport is located, the dislocation point of the 75th Brigade of the Syrian Army in the vicinity of the village of al-Maquilbiya, and the Center for Scientific Research in Jamaria.
Source: Sputnik
