Report: Syria's Russian-Made Air Defense Shot Down 5 of 8 Israeli Missiles

Russian Defence Ministry: Two Israeli F-15 fighter jets fired 8 guided missiles at Syria's T-4 airbase in Homs province, 3 reached western part of the airfield, 5 were shot down by air defence https://t.co/w2PoUaXpue pic.twitter.com/eMnLR1guNn

— Russia in RSA 🇷🇺 (@EmbassyofRussia) April 9, 2018

The Ministry of Defense reports that Syrian air defense shot down 5 out of 8 Israeli missiles. Thus, Syrian air defense systems may be called quite effective. Just a few years ago, Syrian air defense wasn't able to intercept such missiles.

[...]Today, the Syrian air defense rests on the Soviet S-75, S-125 and S-200 systems. However, although skeptics claim they are obsolete and even troglodytic, they still actually do cope with their task quite well. For example, on February 10, 2018, Syrian air defense shot down an Israeli fighter. The F-16 then fired missiles at the Syrian territory, the response was immediate. After the incident, the Israelis tried to justify themselves, saying that the fighter had been shot down due to its crew's error. But the fact is that Israel lost a warplane for the first time in 35 years. And it was shot down by Syria's air defense. Today's case reconfirmed that Damascus won't allow violations of its aerial domain with impunity.

Mikhail Khodarenok, military expert: "Concerning the effectiveness of combat shooting, 5 out of 8 is a very high rate. 100% hit occurs hardly ever. Given the effectiveness of combat shooting, Syria's air defense components worked quite well".

📸 انتشار تصاویر اولیه از محل #شهادت مستشاران #ایرانی در #حمله_موشکی به فرودگاه «T۴»#انتقام_سخت pic.twitter.com/lvVFLC1yqp

— خبرگزاری تسنیم 🇮🇷 (@Tasnimnews_Fa) April 10, 2018

The Russian military reserves the right to shoot down missiles and destroy launch sites in the event of US aggression against Syria, Moscow's envoy to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin has warned.

Zasypkin stressed that “the Russian forces will confront any US aggression on Syria, by intercepting the missiles and striking their launch pads,” al-Manar TV website reported, citing the envoy.

President Trump and his advisers are weighing a more robust retaliatory strike against Syria than last year’s missile attack https://t.co/NucI0E7R1b pic.twitter.com/RZkCbimO1i

— NYT Politics (@nytpolitics) April 11, 2018

President Trump and his advisers on Tuesday weighed a more robust retaliatory strike against Syria than last year’s missile attack, reasoning that only an escalation of force would look credible and possibly serve as a deterrent against further use of chemical weapons on Syrian civilians.

A pair of Navy warships in the eastern Mediterranean Sea were capable of launching the same sort of missile barrage that Mr. Trump ordered against a Syrian air base a year ago in response to a chemical attack then that killed more than 80 civilians.

But White House and national security officials worried that an operation of the same scale, as punishment for another suspected and deadly attack that killed dozens over the weekend, would not be effective at curbing the Syrian military’s war effort.

Administration officials said they expected any new strike to be more expansive than last year’s, but the question was how much more. Possible options included hitting more than a single target and extending strikes beyond a single day.

But even so, Mr. Trump remained reluctant to deepen American involvement over a longer term.

Mr. Trump and his team enlisted support for action against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. American officials expressed confidence that they would have the backing of France, which has been vocal about the need for a strong response, as well as Britain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, all of which called for Syria to be held accountable for the suspected chemical attack. It remained unclear, however, whether any of the allies would participate.