Syria Fires Missiles At Russian Passenger Plane With 159 People On Board
https://nigeriaafrica1.blogspot.com/2013/05/syria-fires-missiles-at-russian.html
Two missiles were fired at a Russian passenger plane with 200 people on board as it flew over Syrian territory.
The source of the attack is yet to be confirmed.
“Syrian [officials] informed us that on Monday morning, unidentified forces launched two ground-to-air missiles which exploded in the air very close to a civilian aircraft belonging to a Russian airline,” an informed Moscow source told a Russian news agency.
The pilots were able to steer the plane out of harm’s way just as the missiles were nearing the aircraft.
The attackers most likely thought the passenger plane had come from Israel, whose stealth bombers recently destroyed a Syrian chemical weapon plant this weekend.
The plane belongs to Nordwind Airlines, a Russian charter air carrier. It had departed from Egypt’s resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh and was headed to the city of Kazan, located in Russia’s republic of Tatarstan.
“No one was injured, and the plane was not damaged. The aircraft landed in Kazan as it had been planned,” the tourism agency’s press service told RIA Novosti.
If the Syrian government is behind the attack, president Bashar al-Assad may very well have sealed his own fate as Russia has funded a large portion of his country’s military. If it weren’t for the money and weapons al-Assad receives from Russia, he would probably have been overthrown by rebel forces a long time ago.
Did al-Assad just inadvertently ruin the only alliance keeping him in power?
“Syrian [officials] informed us that on Monday morning, unidentified forces launched two ground-to-air missiles which exploded in the air very close to a civilian aircraft belonging to a Russian airline,” an informed Moscow source told a Russian news agency.
The pilots were able to steer the plane out of harm’s way just as the missiles were nearing the aircraft.
The attackers most likely thought the passenger plane had come from Israel, whose stealth bombers recently destroyed a Syrian chemical weapon plant this weekend.
The plane belongs to Nordwind Airlines, a Russian charter air carrier. It had departed from Egypt’s resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh and was headed to the city of Kazan, located in Russia’s republic of Tatarstan.
“No one was injured, and the plane was not damaged. The aircraft landed in Kazan as it had been planned,” the tourism agency’s press service told RIA Novosti.
If the Syrian government is behind the attack, president Bashar al-Assad may very well have sealed his own fate as Russia has funded a large portion of his country’s military. If it weren’t for the money and weapons al-Assad receives from Russia, he would probably have been overthrown by rebel forces a long time ago.
Did al-Assad just inadvertently ruin the only alliance keeping him in power?
