Damascus warns Israel of 'more surprises'
in Syria
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[February 13, 2018]
DAMASCUS/
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -
Israel will face "more surprises" should it again attack Syrian
territory, Damascus said on Tuesday, after Syria's air defenses shot
down an advanced Israeli warplane during the fiercest flare-up between
the old foes in 36 years.
The F-16 jet was hit over northern Israel on Saturday as it returned
from a raid on a Syrian position blamed for launching an Iranian-made
drone across the border. Iran is supporting President Bashar al-Assad in
Syria’s near seven-year civil war.
"Have full confidence the aggressor will be greatly surprised, because
it thought this war - this war of attrition Syria has been exposed to
for years - had made it incapable of confronting attacks," Assistant
Foreign Minister Ayman Sussan said.
"God willing, they will see more surprises whenever they try to attack
Syria," Sussan said during a Damascus news conference.
The downed F-16 was the first warplane Israel has lost to enemy fire
since its 1982 Lebanon war. Its two-man crew survived, with injuries,
after bailing out of the stricken jet.

Israel retaliated by destroying around half of Syria's anti-aircraft
batteries, according to an initial assessment shared with Reuters by an
Israeli official who requested anonymity.
Israel has said it will press ahead with missions in Syria, where it has
launched scores of sorties against suspected arms transfers to
Iranian-sponsored Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.
"There are no limitations, and nor do we accept any limitations,"
Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman told reporters during a tour of
Israel's border with Syria and Lebanon.
"We will continue to defend our vital security and other interests. And
I would like to paraphrase the well-known saying: 'This is not the time
to bark, this is the time to bite.'"
Tehran’s involvement in Syria, including the deployment of Iran-backed
forces near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, has alarmed Israel. It
has also has accused Iran of building precision-guided missile factories
for Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Syria and Hezbollah celebrated the F-16 shoot-down as a blow to Israeli
military superiority. Israel's Army Radio said on Tuesday that
investigators believed pilot error - rather than Syrian capabilities -
were mainly at fault for the F-16's failure to evade what was probably
an aged SA-5 missile.
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n old military vehicle can be seen positioned on the Israeli side of
the border with Syria, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the
Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel February 11, 2018.
REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Israeli military spokesman declined to comment on that report,
saying the investigation was ongoing.
Saturday's incident stirred up further questions in Israel about the
effectiveness of a coordination mechanism set up with Russia, which
has also been reinforcing and arming Assad's army.
Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to the flare-up by urging
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to avoid escalation in
Syria. Moscow said on Monday it did not have information to support
Israel's allegation about an Iranian military presence in the site
bombed for launching the drone.
Zeev Elkin, a Russian-speaking Israeli cabinet minister who serves
as Netanyahu's interpreter in the talks with Putin, defended the
coordination mechanism on Tuesday as granting Israel "freedom of
action in the skies above Lebanon and Syria".
"I don't think the Russians ever pledged that they would take
military action against the Iranians and the Syrians for us," Elkin
told Israel Radio.
"We are going one-on-one against the Syrians. We don't need
assistance from the Russians. We know how to deal with Syrian
anti-aircraft fire, as everyone ultimately saw."
(Reporting by Kinda Makieh in Damascus, Dan Williams in Jerusalem
and Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow, Writing by Tom Perry, Editing by
William Maclean)
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