• Wide Angle: Poutin reigns in the Middle East between opposing sides

Russia and Israel have collided again in Syria and this time a new civil aviation catastrophe almost occurs. The Russian army on Friday accused Israel of using an Airbus-320 with 172 passengers on board as a shield to be safe from a Syrian military response during Thursday's bombings near Damascus airport. The events happened on Thursday when Israeli aviation bombed areas outside the capital and Syrian forces repelled this attack, a statement from the Russian Defense Ministry said. The plane, which was traveling between Tehran and Damascus with 172 civilians on board, could finally land at the Russian base in Khmeimim.

Something similar happened to both countries in 2018. Then it was 'friend' fire : Syria shot down a Russian military plane by mistake after an Israeli air strike. Since the war broke out in Syria in 2011, Israel has often been bombing positions of the Syrian army and also of its allies Iran and the Shiite Hizbullah movement, its staunch enemies. That collision was the most serious in terms of casualties: 15 Russian soldiers died.

On Thursday when Israel attacked the response to the attack came, but just then "a commercial plane was approaching the airport" to land and was found in the "deadly zone of air and artillery fire," according to Moscow. The Russian army has not given details about the company that operated the flight, but has raised the tone against Israel. "Using a civil aircraft during a military operation to cover or block the response of the Syrian armed forces has become characteristic of the Israeli air forces," criticized the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, General Igor Konashenkov . Israeli radars had "a clear vision of the situation in the sky around Damascus airport," the Russian army spokesman added, accusing Israel of "not caring about the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians."

Russian state media say the flight was coming from the Iranian capital, Tehran. Some early information suggested that a Russian plane was involved. However, the BBC network reports that several social media users pointed out that a flight belonging to Cham Wings from Syria traveling from the Iraqi city of Najaf changed its course from Damascus to Khmeimim in the early hours of Thursday morning. If the flight belongs to that company, it is the same sanctioned by the US at the end of 2016 for transporting combatants and military equipment in support of the Syrian president.

This incident occurs a month after the Iranian armed forces mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian plane after its takeoff in Tehran. The 176 passengers and crew members died. Before the event, the tension had risen after Iranian General Qassem Soleimani arrived in Iraq from Damascus on a flight from the same company, Cham Wings . There he was killed in an American air strike last month.

Israel did not comment on this latest 'clash' with Russia in Syria. But he has acknowledged hundreds of attacks in Syria in recent years against targets linked to Iran and also to thwart arms shipments through Syria to the Hizbullah pro-Iranian movement in Lebanon. Israel insists that it will not allow Iran, its sworn enemy, to increase its military presence in Syria , as it sees it as an attempt by Iran and its allies to surround it. Nor has he explained what the objective of Thursday's attacks was. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights believes that the missiles had attacked positions belonging to the Syrian army and militias backed by Iran near the capital, Damascus.

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