Israel blames Syria for the destruction of Russian Il-20
The press service for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed that Israeli aircraft attacked a military facility in the area of Syrian Latakia on the night of September 18th. According to the IDF, from this facility objects were to be transported to Lebanon for Iran and Hezbollah productions of weapons.
According to the preliminary results of the IDF investigation, the downing of Il-20 was a result of Syrian air defense inaccurate attacks. At the time the missiles that downed the Il-20 were launched, the Israeli Air Force planes were already over Israeli airspace.
Earlier, Russia’s Defense Ministry said that Israeli aircraft used the Russian Il-20 as cover.
“By using the Russian aircraft as cover, the Israeli pilots put the Russian aircraft in the line of fire by Syrian Air Defense. As a result, the Il-20, whose effective reflective surface is much greater than the F-16, was shot down by a S-200 missile,” said the spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense, Major-General Igor Konashenkov.