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07 February 2020A 172-passenger plane bound for Damascus was due to land at the Russian air base in Khmeimim, in the Syrian province of Latakia, due to an Israeli air-to-ground missile attack on the suburbs of the Syrian capital. This was announced by the Russian Ministry of Defense. The incident, according to Defense spokesman, General Igor Konashenkov, occurred on Thursday, when four Israeli F-16 fighters, without entering Syria, fired eight missiles at the outskirts of Damascus, an action that triggered the defenses Syrian antiaircraft. At the time of the attack, the plane, an Airbus-320 from Tehran on a regular flight, was about to land at Damascus airport and "almost entered the artillery and anti-aircraft missile fire area," he explained Konashe'nkov, who did not specify who the aircraft was. "Only thanks to the rapid intervention of the Damascus airport controllers and the effective operation of the automatic air traffic regulation system it was possible to divert the Airbus-320 to the reserve airport, the Russian air base of Khmeimim where it is landed".