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Monday, September 24, 2007      New: Take a Stand

Syrian MiG goes down near Israel

JERUSALEM — Syria has lost a MiG-21 fighter-jet near Israel.

Israeli officials said the Syrian Air Force sent several MiG-21s on a mission near the Golan Heights, part of which was captured by Israel in the 1967 war. They said one of the MiGs crashed on Sept. 22.

The governments of neither Israel nor Syria officially confirmed the crash of the Syrian MiG-21, Middle East Newsline reported. The Israel Air Force has been on alert for Syrian retaliation in wake of reports of an Israeli air strike on a suspected Syrian nuclear or missile facility near the border with Iraq on Sept. 6.

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The Israel Air Force ordered several F-15 multi-role fighters to confront the Syrian MiGs, officials said. But the Syrian fighters were gone by the time the F-15s arrived.

Officials said Syria has rarely held air force missions near the Golan Heights. They said that in 2007, after years of inactivity, Damascus increased combat exercises that included refurbished MiG fighters.

The Israel Air Force has been monitoring Syrian air movements. On Sept. 22, the air force sent combat jets to the Golan Heights after a Syrian MiG disappeared from Israeli radar screens.

Officials said Syria has also moved troops south toward the Golan Heights over the last two weeks. But they said Damascus was not expected to initiate hostilities, although they did not rule out attacks by insurgency groups aligned with Syria.

On Sept. 20, Israeli F-15s were first sent to the northern Golan Heights along the Syrian frontier. Officials said air force radars detected "suspicious activity," which turned out to be a flock of migrating birds.

The Syrian fleet has been based on the MiG-29 as well as older MiG-25s and -23 fighters. Damascus was said to have about 200 MiG-21s, most of which have been retired amid a shortage of spare parts and maintenance.

Industry sources said Russia has been negotiating for a contract to modernize some of the Syria's MiG fleet. The sources said Syria has been discussing a joint project that would include and funded by Iran.

"Our deliveries to Syria are for defensive arms, and in no way can that balance be disrupted," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday. "Moreover, given the particular delicacy of questions related to deliveries of arms to this region, in our contract we always prohibit the transfer of weapons to anyone apart from the direct recipient of such weapons."

"If there are facts indicating that obligations have not been fulfilled, if those obligations have been violated, we always investigate such instances," Lavrov told a briefing at the United Nations. "But, in this instance, we have not received any facts. We have spoken about this with our Israeli colleagues, and they are worried about this."

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