Syrian General: Missile Units Need No Green Light for Targeting Hostile Israeli Aircraft

“The decision to confront any Israeli aggression in any volume and form has been made (by the higher ranks in Syria) and the Syrian air defense systems had earlier confronted similar aggressions and intercepted and destroyed 13 Israeli missiles out of 15 missiles that the enemy had fired at the Syrian positions,” General Yahya Suleiman said Saturday.

He stressed that the ball is now in Israel’s court, adding, “If Israel wants intensified tensions, we will be ready for it.”

General Suleiman, meantime, said that Israel doesn’t make such a decision so rapidly and it will first consult with its regional and international allies, specially the US.

A Syrian media outlet reported on Saturday that the country’s Air Defense Units targeted an Israeli warplane after it raided the Syrian Army positions in the Central part of Syria.

The state-run SANA news agency quoted a field source as saying that an Israeli warplanes embarked on targeting a military base of the Syrian Army in Central part of the country on Saturday morning, adding that the Syrian air defense units tracked the warplanes and targeted more then one of them.

In the meantime, an Israeli media source reported that one of the Israeli jets was downed in al-Jalil region in Northern occupied Palestine by the Syrian air defense units’ fire in the occupied Golan region.

Also, the Arabic-website of Russia’s Sputnik quoted Spokesman for the Israeli Army Avikhai Adra’ei as saying that the Syrian air defense units targeted an Israeli F16 fighter jet in Northern part of Palestine, adding that the downed warplane’s pilots are alive and in good health condition.

The Israeli spokesman further claimed that an Iranian drone entered airspace of the occupied Palestine, but an Israeli combat helicopter targeted it. Iranian officials have rejected the claim.

The Joint Operations Room run by the allied forces of Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, and Russia said the drone never crossed the border into Israel, adding that Israel has raided its drone base at the T4 airbase in Central Homs province in Central Syria far away from the Israeli border. The operations room said the drones operating at the base are tasked with collecting information on ISIL in Syrian territories. It also warned that the incident crossed the border of its tolerance, implying that it would reciprocate any further aggression by Israel.

In the meantime, other sources said that the two pilots of the down Israeli jet were injured and one of them is in critical condition.

Some sources reported that the badly inured pilot was wounded before ejecting form the warplane.

Damascus stressed on Thursday that the repeated Israeli attacks on Syria are a continuation of Israel’s aggressive approach represented by supporting terrorist groups to prolong the crisis in Syria and to raise the morale of the terrorists.

In a letter sent to the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council, Syria’s Foreign Ministry stressed that the continuation of Israel’s attacks only serves to support terrorist groups and to prolong the crisis in Syria.

During the past few years, Israel has frequently attacked military targets in Syria in what is considered as an attempt to prop up terrorist groups that have been suffering heavy defeats against Syrian government forces.

On several occasions, the Syrian army has confiscated Israeli-made arms and military equipment from militants fighting pro-Damascus forces. Israel has also been providing medical treatment to the extremist militants wounded in Syria.