Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday boasted that Syria’s downing of an Israeli F-16 fighter jet last weekend was a “very big achievement.” In a televised speech, Nasrallah also threatened Israel's offshore energy projects and insisted his movement is Lebanon's "only" source of leverage in an escalating oil and gas dispute.
Last Saturday, a squadron of Israeli F-16I fighters struck a dozen Syrian and Iranian military targets around Damascus, in retaliation for the violation of Israeli airspace by an Iranian “Simorgh”-type unmanned aircraft earlier that day. During the operation, Syria’s air defense network fired dozens of missiles at the Israeli aircraft. Most of the missiles fired were older, Soviet-built S-200 “Dubna” missiles (designated as the SA-5 Gammon by NATO).
One of the S-200 missiles exploded in close proximity to one of the F-16Is, damaging the plane and forcing the pilot and navigator to bail out after they returned to Israeli airspace. Both crew members were injured during the ejection sequence.
“The decision to shoot down the plane was taken by the Syrian leadership and President Bashar Al-Assad. Those who executed the order were the officers and soldiers from the Syrian Arab Army,” Nasrallah said Friday, according to Iran’s PressTV.
In his remarks, the terrorist leader also discussed the tensions between Israel and Lebanon over offshore drilling for gas. Last week Lebanon signed its first contract to drill for oil and gas off its coast with a consortium comprising energy giants Total, ENI and Novatek, including in a block disputed by Israel. Read More)
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