An S-300 battery in Syria reportedly launched at least one surface-to-air missile at Israeli Air Force F-16 fighter jets in recent days. The incident is the first apparent instance of a
Russian-made S-300 firing on Israeli jets as they conduct raids in Syria since Moscow declared they had equipped
the Assad regime with these air defense systems in 2018.
Exactly who operates the S-300 systems currently in Syria, regardless of their official status, is unclear. It is known that Russia does, or at least did, control the release of the missiles from 'Syrian' S-300 batteries in the country. As a result, neither those batteries nor Russia's own S-400 and S-300 systems located at its naval base in Tartus and at its Khmeimim Air Base near Latakia, have ever fired on incoming Israeli fighters, at least until now.Israel’s Channel 13 reported on May 16 that 'Russian' S-300 SAM batteries had
fired missiles at Israeli jets after striking targets near Syria's northwestern city of Masyaf last Friday. However, the outlet's story also describes the ostensibly Syrian S-300 systems as being effectively Russian given Moscow's direct control over their use.
As is standard practice, the Israel Defense Forces have not commented one way or another on the strikes. A statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense's Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria
had said that Israeli F-16s fired 22 missiles targeting a 'Syrian scientific research center' in the western Syrian city of Masyaf and the port of Baniyas on May 13.
In addition to targeting Iranian arms transfers destined for militants in Syria and Lebanon, as well as Iranian-backed weapons factories and arms caches in Syria, the
Israeli strikes in Syria last week were intended to destroy entrances to underground facilities,
the Jerusalem Post reported. At least some of the targets were hit by previous airstrikes in 2018, but had since been rebuilt.
