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Russia loses contact with military aircraft off coast of Syria | |
(about 4 hours later) | |
A Russian military aircraft with 14 people onboard has disappeared from radar over Syrian waters, the Russian defence ministry has said. | |
The fate of the military personnel was unknown, the ministry said, and a search for the plane initiated after contact was lost at about 11pm local time (2000 GMT) on Monday. | |
“Connection has been lost with the crew of a Russian Il-20 plane over the Mediterranean Sea 35km from the Syrian coast as it was returning to the Hmeimim airbase,” the ministry said early on Tuesday. | |
The incident occurred during an alleged Israeli attack against nearby targets on the coast. Syria said its anti-air batteries had fired at incoming missiles from the sea that were heading towards several locations in the coastal city of Latakia. | |
“Air defences have confronted enemy missiles coming from the sea in the direction of the Latakia city, and intercepted a number of them,” the state news agency Sana quoted a military source as saying. | |
A US official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the US government believed Syrian defences may have accidentally shot down the Russian aircraft while firing at incoming Israeli missiles. Hmeimim airbase, the Russian-operated facility in Syria to which the missing plane was returning, is located south-east of Latakia city. | |
“The missiles were not fired by the US military and we have nothing further at this time,” a spokesperson for the Pentagon told the Guardian. | |
The Russian defence ministry said radar contact was lost at the same time that Israeli and French forces were mounting aerial attacks on targets in Syria. France denied any involvement. | |
The Israeli military said it did not comment on “foreign reports”. But for several years, Israel and Russia have maintained a special hotline to prevent their air forces from clashing in the skies over Syria. Israeli military officials have previously praised its effectiveness. | |
A search-and-rescue source told the Russian Interfax news agency that the warplane could have sunk in the Mediterranean Sea as a result of an “unforeseen critical incident” in the air. | |
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group that monitors the conflict, said huge explosions were heard in the Latakia on Monday night, wounding more than 10 people, whom they identified as “regime forces and military personnel”. | |
Russia’s military operation in Syria, which began in late 2015, has turned the tide of the conflict in favour of Moscow’s ally, the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, in his fight against rebels. | |
At the same time, Israel’s airforce has launched scores of attacks on Syrian territory in a campaign it says is to prevent its arch-enemy and Assad’s ally, Iran, from gaining a military foothold in a neighbouring country. The strikes have also targeted arms shipments in Syria to Lebanon’s Tehran-backed Hezbollah movement. | |
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Middle East and North Africa | Middle East and North Africa |
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