Israeli fighter jet shot down in Syria

International Desk: An Israeli F-16 fighter jet has been shot down by Syrian military while targeting what it called Iranian sites responsible for launching a drone into occupied Golan Heights.

The Israeli military said on Saturday "a combat helicopter successfully intercepted an Iranian UAV that was launched from Syria and infiltrated Israel".

"IDF [Israel Defence Forces] has targeted the Iranian control systems in Syria that sent the #UAV into Israeli airspace. Massive Syrian Anti-Air fire, one F16 crashed in Israel, pilots safe," Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, Israeli military spokesman, said on Twitter.

Israeli media said the jet crashed in northern Israel.

"This is a dramatic development," Al Jazeera's Zena Khodr, reporting from Lebanon's capital, Beirut, said.

"Israel has carried out dozens of attacks over the past one year but this is for the first time a Syrian military has shot down an Israeli plane," she said.

"It is also for the first time that Israel has said its planes carried out attacks inside Syria. In the past, the Israelis carried out attacks inside Syria but they would not mention anything about the target or even acknowledge attacks."

Source: Al Jazeera online


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