Syria shoots down Russian spy plane and Russia blames Israel

Times:
Moscow has sought to blame Israel for the fatal downing of one of its reconnaissance aircraft over Syria, after a missile defence system provided to the Assad regime by Russia shot down the plane during Israeli bombing runs.

The Russian defence ministry said today that the Il-20 surveillance plane, carrying 15 people, was struck by a Syrian surface-to-air missile during an attack by four Israeli F-16 jets on Latakia, a port city controlled by the Assad regime.

The ministry said the Israeli jets used the Russian plane as cover and intentionally pushed it into the path of Syrian S-200 missiles. It also said Israel had only informed Russian military officials about its attack on regime facilities in Latakia one minute before it was launched.

Russian state media is reporting that all 15 people on board the surveillance aircraft are dead. Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defence minister, said Moscow held Israel “wholly responsible” for the downing of the Russian plane and the deaths of its crew.

President Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that the Kremlin was “extremely concerned” by the incident.
...
There is more.

Israel may have overestimated the intelligence of the S-200 operators who should have known it was a Russian plane they were targeting.  It does appear that Israel has figured out another vulnerability of the Russian system.

Israel has been targeting Iran weapon component deliveries in Syria, so I suspect that is what they were after in this strike.

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