[3/22/17] Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has threatened to destroy Syrian air defense systems after the Syrian military fired anti-aircraft missiles at Israeli jets carrying out air strikes last Thursday.
“The next time the Syrians use their air defense systems against our planes we will destroy them without the slightest hesitation,” Lieberman said on Israeli public radio The Independent reported.
Israeli jets bombed several targets in Syria on Friday, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stating that the strikes “targeted weapons bound for Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah movement,” while the Syrian military claimed that the jets struck a military site near Palmyra.
Syria’s military further claimed that they had downed one of the Israeli planes and struck another as they were carrying out the airstrikes.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) denied that any of their planes had been hit in the mission.
Stating that “several anti-aircraft missiles” were fired following the bombings but that no missiles had hit their jets.
Adding that one missile was intercepted by the Israeli Aerial Defense System known as “Arrow.”
A Syrian army statement accused Israel of carrying out strikes near Palmyra to help “Isis terrorist gangs and in a desperate attempt to raise their deteriorating morale and divert attention away from the victories which the Syrian Arab Army is making in the face of the terrorist organizations.”
