{"id":61509,"date":"2020-02-11T11:00:25","date_gmt":"2020-02-11T03:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=61509"},"modified":"2020-02-11T11:51:38","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T03:51:38","slug":"russia-says-plane-almost-hit-by-anti-aircraft-fire-in-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=61509","title":{"rendered":"Russia says plane ‘almost hit’ by anti-aircraft fire in Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A video released by Syrian state media reportedly showed an explosion following an alleged Israeli attack.
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 DAMASCUS\/MOSCOW, Feb 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A<\/strong> passenger plane in Syria was forced to re-route after it was almost hit by the country’s missile defence system, Russia’s defence ministry says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a statement quoted by Russian media, the plane was about to land in Damascus when Syrian anti-aircraft fire responded to an alleged Israeli attack early on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Airbus 320 then diverted to the Russian airbase of Hmeimim in north-western Syria, the ministry said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 172 people were on board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The identity of the flight involved is unclear. Russian state media said the flight was coming from the Iranian capital Tehran and some early reports suggested a Russian aircraft was involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a number of social media users pointed out that a flight belonging to Syria’s Cham Wings travelling from the Iraqi city of Najaf appeared to change its course from Damascus to Hmeimim in the early hours of Thursday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In MOSCOW, Igor Konashenkov, an official Russian Defence Ministry spokesman, accused the Israeli military of “using the presence of civilian airliners as a shield against Syrian anti-aircraft fire” during air combat operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This, he said, made “a total mockery of the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moscow is a key ally of the Syrian president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September 2018, 15 Russian servicemen were killed when Syrian air defence forces accidentally downed a Russian aircraft while responding to Israeli strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia’s claims comes a month after 176 people were killed when Iranian forces mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian aircraft shortly after it took off from Tehran, amid rising tensions with the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A UK-based monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Thursday’s strikes had targeted positions belonging to the Syrian army and Iran-backed militias close to the capital Damascus, killing 23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Syrian state news agency Sana said that eight people had been wounded in the strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah, are supporting forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s long-running civil war. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A video released by Syrian state media reportedly showed an explosion following an alleged Israeli attack.  DAMASCUS\/MOSCOW, Feb 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A passenger plane in Syria was forced to re-route after it was almost hit by the country’s missile defence system, Russia’s defence ministry says. According to a statement quoted by Russian media, the plane was about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61509"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61509\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}