BY TYLER ROGOWAY
fter six years of fighting, the chances that Israel may wade into the maelstrom that is the Syrian civil war is increasing after two more Israeli airstrikes rocked Syria over the weekend. One of the strikes was delivered Sunday via drone against a truck traveling between the Golan Heights and Damascus. One of the two people killed supposedly had close military ties to the Assad regime. The other strike came overnight and was rumored to have been aimed at another Hezbollah weapons convoy.
These strikes follow an early Friday morning Israel air raid that targeted a Hezbollah weapons transfer in southern Syria. That mission resulted in Syrian surface-to-air missile batteries firing on Israeli jets. At least one Syrian SA-5 SAM was intercepted by Israel's Arrow anti-ballistic missile system during the volley. The engagement was the first time the Arrow system has ever been used in combat. Now, Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has clearly warned Syria of what will come if another missile is fired at an IAF jet, stating: "The next time the Syrians use their air defense systems against our airplanes, we will destroy all of them without thinking twice."As we discussed on Friday, Assad's air defense network remains largely intact, at least in the areas where the regime has held control over the last six years. Although it is made up mostly of dated Soviet-era systems, many of which are fixed or semi-fixed emplacements, some road-mobile units also exist, including the SA-6 and more advanced SA-11 systems. Shorter-range point defense Pantsir-S1 systems are among the most modern systems in Syrian hands. Although they are designed to defend the immediate area around high value installations or troop movements, they are especially focused on low-flying aircraft, drones and cruise missiles, and are capable of wide-area air defense.
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/8444/israel-warns-it-will-destroy-syrias-air-defenses-without-thinking-twice
