- Russia has delivered its powerful S-300 missile defence systems to Syria after losing 15 servicemembers and a spy plane to a friendly fire incident during an Israeli air raid.
- Syrian air defences reportedly have targeted US jets before, and downed an Israeli jet in February.
- The US and Israel both say they will keep fighting in Syria, and that means air power for the advanced militaries.
- Syria has been at war for seven years, but somehow avoided that war spilling over into a great power conflict. But with Russia escalating the stakes, serious confrontations could play out.
Russia has delivered its powerful S-300 missile defence systems to Syria after losing 15 servicemembers and a spy plane to a friendly fire incident during an Israeli air raid, and the systems raise the prospect of a Russian war against Israel or the US.
Russia’s new S-300s will replace older systems that have a poor track record of defending against airstrikes of any kind. Israel has attacked targets in Syria more than 200 times and the US has twice fired large salvos of Tomahawk Cruise missiles into the country.
The only confirmed success of Syria’s previous air defences came in a February shoot-down of an Israeli F-16. In other cases, Syrian air defences have been captured firing blindly.
But despite the acutely increased risk to Israeli forces, the Jewish state remains committed to carrying out its mission in Syria.
“We have not changed our strategic line on Iran,” said Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, a member of Israel’s security cabinet, according to Radio Free Europe.
“We will not allow Iran to open up a third front against us. We will take actions as required,” he said.
Iran has an estimated 70,000 fighters in Syria and seeks to wield its influence in the country to facilitate arms transfers to Hezbollah, a US-designated terror group bent on Israel’s destruction with a political presence in Lebanon. Israel, over hundreds of airstrikes, has sought to defeat that mission.
Read the full article by Alex Lockie at Business Insider Australia.