A lot of increased hostility in the Middle East to report today.
Netanyahu accused Iran of violating Israel’s sovereignty with a drone:
“This morning Iran brazenly violated Israel’s sovereignty.”
MOMENTS AGO: Israel’s PM @Netanyahu addressed Israel’s military launching a “large scale attack” after an Iranian drone infiltrated the country, before one of its own jets was downed. https://t.co/2udwzcsnnS pic.twitter.com/6zfa4uokV7
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 10, 2018
So Israel sent large scale attacks against Iranian forces in Syria, and the Syrian forces they support:
The response was the “most significant attack” of its kind against Syria since the 1982 Lebanon war, said senior Israeli air force general Tomer Bar.
The F-16 jet went down during a mission that followed an Iranian drone launch into Israeli territory, Israel says.
The two pilots parachuted to safety before the crash in northern Israel.
Israel says it responded with a second wave of strikes on both Syrian and Iranian military targets operating inside Syria.
Israeli air strikes in Syria are not unusual, BBC Middle East correspondent Tom Bateman says, but the loss of an Israeli fighter jet marks a serious escalation.
Here’s footage of the drone being shot down:
Original footage showing #Iranian UAV infiltrating and then shot down over Israel, and #IDF strike on Iranian command vehicle in #Syria pic.twitter.com/Sz6poAOdjc
— Jonathan Conricus (@LTCJonathan) February 10, 2018
A timeline:
Here’s a quick summary of today’s events, from the #Iranian UAV to our large-scale strike against the #Syrian air-defense. The IDF will stand guard against any further attacks. pic.twitter.com/ntoHRiv1Z6
— Jonathan Conricus (@LTCJonathan) February 10, 2018
And now Hezbollah is praising the new strategic arrangement:
Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy backing Syrian President Bashar Assad in his country’s civil war, praised the “vigilance of the Syrian army,” and said it had “bravely blocked Israeli warplanes and downed an F-16.”
It also said the Syrian response marked “a decisive end to old arrangements.”
I think they might be exaggerating here…