Regarding the Isreali air raid on Damascus.

Russian military sources are sating that two civilian aircraft were used as cover for the run in the hope that the Syrian air defence systems would accidentally shoot them down throwing a huge spanner into Trump's plan to withdraw troops..

Is it possible for planefag anons to verify? One of the civilian aircraft was diverted to Khmeimim in southern Lattakia. according to the source article.

"The Israeli Air Force (IAF) carried out its recent airstrikes in Syria when two civilians planes were landing in Beirut and Damascus, putting passengers at risk, Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense (MoD) of Russia told reporters on December 26.

“Provocative acts by the Israeli Air Force endangered two passenger jets when six of their F-16s carried out airstrikes on Syria from Lebanese airspace,” RT quoted the spokesman as saying.

According to Konashenkov, the Syrian Arab Air Defense Forces (SyAADF) delayed the deployment of surface-to-air missiles and electronic jamming “to prevent a tragedy.” Meanwhile, the Damascus air traffic control diverted one of the passenger jets to a reserve airport in Khmeimim in southern Lattakia.

Konashenkov said that 6 Israeli F-16 warplanes used 16 US-made GPS-guided GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs (SDBs) in the attack, which occurred at the late hours of December 25. Only 2 SDBs managed to hit their targets, while the rest were intercepted by the SyAADF."

https://southfront.org/russian-mod-israeli-air-force-used-landing-of-two-civilian-planes-as-cover-for-airstrikes/

>>4489190

I think this is highly relevant. A quote from a supporting article.

"Had the Syrian military not hesitated, and engaged the initial Israeli bogey – and accidentally hit one of the passenger airliners the IDF was using as cover – the international outrage would have been substantial, with the western media most certainly blaming ‘the Assad Regime’ and ‘Putin’s Russia’ for the ‘humanitarian tragedy.’ It’s possible that an incident would have been enough to prompt renewed calls for the US forces to remain in Syria – effectively reversing the announcement made by President Trump last week to withdrawal US troops from their illegal occupation on northeastern Syria. Whether this was the Israeli motive for carrying out such a risky move is uncertain, but yesterday’s reckless incident by Israel follows a familiar and disturbing pattern of using other country’s aircraft as cover in order bait Syria’s air defenses to hit the wrong targets while conveniently concealing their own visibility on their enemy’s radar systems."

https://21stcenturywire.com/2018/12/26/revealed-israels-idf-used-passenger-airliners-as-cover-during-christmas-day-attack-on-damascus/

>>4489451

To your first point.. it certainly looks that way. If a planefag could just verify the Russian military's account of the civilian aircraft, maybe identify them and establish passengers onboard and the diversion.

To your second point I'm not aware… Sorry. Post a reference for me… I'll take a look 👍

>>4489833

👍