On February 6th early Thursday morning, a civilian aircraft carrying 172 passengers was almost hit by the Syrian defense system while trying to land in Damascus. According to the Russian Defense Ministry they managed to avoid the attack and rerouted to the Russian airbase Hmeimim in north-western Syria.

Israel did not make any comments about Thursday’s strikes, however they did acknowledge carrying out hundreds of strikes in Syria in recent years. This incident closely resembles another incident that occurred in 2018 where a Russian reconnaissance plane was shot down after being used as a shield by the Israeli air-force to protect themselves from Syrian forces. This event resulted in the death of 15 Russian service members.

Although the airliner of the plane was not identified by spokesman of the Russian Defense Ministry Igor Konashenkov, information from flight tracker Flighttradar24 indicated it was likely a Syrian Cham Wings aircraft. To make matters worse, this company has been accused of transporting and supporting terrorist activities in the past. The situation as a whole is very peculiar and has too many details missing for one to pin the blame entirely on one group.

“Unfortunately, such operations of Israeli strategists do not care in the slightest about the lives of hundreds of absolutely innocent civilians.”

Igor Konashenkov, Spokesman of the Russian Defense Ministry