Israelis destroy Syrian fighter
ISRAEL shot down a Syrian fighter jet it said had breached its airspace on Tuesday while advancing Syrian government forces retaking territory from rebels reached the Golan Heights frontier for the first time in seven years.
The Israeli military said it monitored the advance of the Syrian Sukhoi fighter jet and shot it down with a pair of Patriot missiles after it penetrated Israeli airspace by about 2km.
Syria’s military, however, said one of its jets was targeted by Israel over Syrian territory as it flew sorties against Islamic State militants.
Syrian forces have been battling rebels and IS militants at the frontier with Israel for weeks in a campaign to restore President Bashar Assad’s rule over southwestern Syria.
On Tuesday, government forces reached the border fence where a UN peacekeeping force is deployed at the edge of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
It was the first time the Syrian government had managed to retake the area since 2011, when an uprising swept through Syria against Assad.
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967. The UN deployed peacekeepers in 1974.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the breach of Israeli territory a “gross violation” of a 1974 agreement that established the demilitarised zone between Israel and Syria.
“I have reiterated and made clear that we will not accept any such violation,” he said in a statement.
“We will not accept any such penetration of or spillover into our territory, neither on the ground nor from the air.”
Israel’s military has been on “elevated alert” along the frontier because of activity on the Syrian side of the fence, said military spokesman Lt Col Jonathan Conricus.
WE WILL NOT ACCEPT ANY SUCH PENETRATION OF OR SPILLOVER INTO OUR TERRITORY BENJAMIN NETANYAHU
Israel has warned Syria through various channels not to violate the 1974 agreement, he added.
Minutes before the reported downing of the jet, Syria’s state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV was broadcasting footage from the fence demarcating the UN buffer zone between Syrian and Israeli forces in the Golan Heights.
A UN observer post could be seen just on the other side of the fence.
The camera showed an Israeli post 400m away. Israel’s military said the Syrian jet took off from the T4 air base, which Israel is believed to have attacked earlier this year in a bid to stop Iran from setting up a military presence in Syria.