War Drums. Israeli Airstrikes On Syria Have Triggered Threats Of Syrian And Russian Retaliation – And Then Counter-Threats of Israeli Retaliation.

Israel is crossing over the border to carry out airstrikes on weapons shipments to Hezbollah, which is allied with Syria and fighting ISIS. Syria responded by threatening to use scud missiles against Israeli planes if they continue. Israel responded by saying it would take out Syria’s air defenses without blinking an eye. -GEG

Multiple outlets are reporting that Russia has delivered a message to the Israel government on behalf of Syria’s Assad regime stating that any more Israel Air Force strikes into Syrian territory will be answered with a barrage of Scud missiles. In particular, it describes what will be targeted and why. If a Israel air strike hits civilian infrastructure, Syria will launch missiles aimed at Israel’s port in Haifa as well as its nearby petrochemical plant. If strikes hit Syrian military-related targets, the Scud missiles will be targeted at Israel Defense Force bases.

The message brings a whole new level of potential escalation to what have been brewing tensions between Damascus and Jerusalem. It started on March 17th when Israeli warplanes were fired upon by Syrian surface-to-air missile sites after executing an air strike in southern Syria. The IAF had made dozens of similar bombing runs over the last five years, focused on taking out weapons shipments destined for Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon. The Syrian SAMs missed their targets but one was intercepted by an Israel Arrow anti-ballistic missile system battery—a system that is designed to take out ballistic missiles like the Scud, not a Soviet-era SA-5 SAM.

A few days later, after the Assad regime made it clear that any IAF jets that make forays into Syrian airspace will be engaged, the head of the Israel’s Ministry of Defense made it clear that the IAF would “destroy Syria’s air defenses without thinking twice” if their jets were fired upon. Meanwhile, Russia summoned Israel’s ambassador, which sent rumors flying that Moscow had told Israel that it will no longer allow the strikes in Syrian territory to occur—a move that has been hinted at for many months.

Following these reports, Benjamin Netanyahu stated “it’s simply incorrect to say the Russians are changing their policy toward us,” although what exactly is going on behind closed doors remains a mystery. Over the last week, Israel has only ramped up its strikes in Syria, with multiple missions being carried out including the assassination of a militant leader with close ties to the Assad regime. Since the Syrian civil war began six years ago, Israeli air strikes in Syrian territory were far less frequent, and the Israeli government did not officially even admit that they had been occurring until Syria fired on the IAF’s jets nearly two weeks ago.

As far as Syria’s ability to carry out such a counterstrike against Israeli targets—there is no doubt that the Assad regime still retains hundreds of Scud derivatives of various origins. These include copies from North Korea and from Iran. Since the conflict in Syria began, Assad’s forces have used Scuds against their own people on numerous occasions.

Israel has an extremely capable anti-ballistic missile defense system that has a multitude of layers aimed at countering everything from small improvised artillery rockets to medium-range ballistic missiles. Still, a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles from Syria, even if they are all intercepted or fail to hit their targets, would result in a major IAF operation to route Assad’s ballistic missile capabilities, and could even include the targeting of Syrian command and control or regime targets as well.

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