Syria:

Advanced Air Defense Systems Make Airspace Unsafe for Israeli Fighter Jets

TEHRAN (defapress)- The Syrian Air Defense units have been equipped with Buk-M2A radar-guided surface-to-air missile (SAM) anti-aircraft system, securing the country's airspace against Israeli airstrikes, a Russian media outlet reported on Saturday.

News ID: 68067

Date: 13 January 2018 - 17:34

According to the Arabic-language website of Russia's state news agency, Sputnik, the Buk-M2A system is capable of tracking different missile and planes, targeting fighter jets flying at 25 km altitude and 45 km in distance.

In the meantime, military experts said that the Israeli Air Force's repeated violations of Syria's airspace are aimed at forcing the Syrian air defense units to fire all the stockpile of Buk-M2A missiles, but the Damascus is using the system only for emergency cases.

The experts said the modern air defense unit has made Israeli pilots fee unsafe and insecure, so they can only use the Lebanese airspace to target Syria.

Well-informed sources said in early Decembers that the Syrian army's air defense units fired at least four missiles at an Israeli fighter jet after the Tel Aviv forces' missiles hit a region in Western Damascus, adding that the Damascus air defense could intercept some of the incoming missiles.

The sources said that the Syrian military's anti-aircraft missiles were fired from the Mezzeh Airbase in rural Damascus in the early hours of Saturday.

The sources added that an Israeli fighter jet was flying at a low altitude over Lebanon’s Baalbek region near Syria's border when the Syrian missiles were launched.

They added that a number of Israeli missiles were fired toward the 1st Division ammo depot in the Western countryside of Damascus, adding that the Syrian Air Defense managed to intercept some of the missiles before hitting their designated targets.

However, some of the missiles hit their intended target, causing loud explosions near the towns of Kesweh and Sahnaya, the sources further added.