COMBAT REPORT // ISRAEL
Amid growing tensions in the region, Combat Aircraft looks at a new round of strikes from Israel as retaliation against forces inside Syria.
ON THE NIGHT of January 19, government sources in Damascus reported a strike inside Syrian territory. Russian accounts claimed the attacks were conducted by Israeli Air Force (IAF) F-16s that had been loitering over the eastern Mediterranean before launching missiles at targets near Damascus International Airport.
A Qeshm Air Boeing 747, en route from Tehran to Damascus, was tracked online making a U-turn and returning home to Iran. It seems Israeli officials got on the hotline to Russian commanders in Syria to alert them to the impending action. Israel has adopted a similar policy in the past when it has targets within civilian population areas in its sights. In this case it would appear Israel was keen to avoid escalating the situation.
On January 20, Iranian forces in Syria launched a rocket attack against northern Israel — the weapon is reported to have been ‘a GPS-guided Nizhat-6’. Skiers at the Mount Hermon resort photographed Israeli Iron Dome missiles intercepting a pair of rockets. On the night of January 20-21, a large-scale attac…
