A plane carrying 172 passengers was forced to make an emergency landing on Thursday at a Russian base in Syria to avoid coming under Syrian artillery fire, the Russian Defense Ministry says.
Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Friday that Syrian air defense systems responding to Israeli airstrikes may have targeted the civilian jet as it came in to land at Damascus airport.Konashenkov did not name the airline but said an Airbus-320 that took off from Tehran narrowly escaped"the lethal zone of artillery fire" as it prepared to land, before it was diverted to Russia's Khmeimim Air Base, which is southeast of the city of Latakia.
Read MoreKonashenkov accused Israel of routinely using passenger jets as shields from Syrian air defense systems.The Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry have not commented on Russian claims, nor on the strikes attributed to Israel.Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on Syria, predominantly targeting the transfer of precision-guided missile technology by Iran-backed groups, which are fighting to prop up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
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