On June 30, a Syrian antiair missile failed to hit its target and fell along a mountainside near Nicosia in northern Cyprus. The projectile was fired by Syrian air defenses forces as Israeli aircraft targeted Syrian, Hezbollah, and Iranian military positions, with that operation reportedly resulting in 16 people killed and 21 wounded. The Syrian...
On September 24, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that Russia will deliver an unspecified number of S-300 air defense systems to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces within the next two weeks. The decision follows a friendly fire air accident on September 17 during which Russian-supplied S-200s in Syria failed to discriminate a Russian reconnaissance...
On September 17, a Russian Ilyushin-20 reconnaissance plane was shot down off the coast of Latakia by a Syrian S-200 air defense system, killing all 15 crew members. Russia blamed the incident on Israel which was conducting an airstrike in the vicinity against targets associated with arms transfers to Lebanese Hezbollah and did not coordinate...
On October 16, Syria’s national “Air Force and Air Defense Day,” a Syrian S-200 surface-to-air missile system fired on several Israeli aircraft flying reconnaissance over Lebanon. The missile interceptor failed to hit its target, and the aircraft safely exfiltrated Lebanese airspace. Several hours later a separate Israeli sortie launched four missiles at the S-200 site...
