Israel shoots down Syrian fighter jet as Assad forces reach Golan Heights
Israel says the warplane breached its airspace, while Damascus said it was targeted in Syrian territory.
Tuesday 24 July 2018 16:34, UK
Israel has shot down a Syrian fighter jet it says breached its airspace in the Golan Heights.
The Israeli military said it monitored the advance of the Syrian Sukhoi fighter jet and took it down with a pair of Patriot missiles.
It said the jet had penetrated the Israeli airspace by about two kilometres (1.2 miles).
Damascus, however, said the jet was targeted over Syrian territory as it flew sorties against Islamic State militants.
Syrian forces have been battling IS militants at the frontier with Israel for weeks as they seek to restore Bashar al Assad's rule over southwestern Syria.
On Tuesday they reached the Golan Heights for the first time in seven years.
Israel occupied the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War in 1967, and the UN deployed a peacekeeping force between the two sides in 1974.
There had been an increase in internal fighting in Syria since the morning hours, Israel's military said, including intensified activity by the Syrian Air Force.
The Syrian jet was the first to be shot down by Israel in four years.
Syria's state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV was broadcasting footage from the fence of the UN buffer zone between Syrian and Israeli forces minutes before the plane was targeted.
The shootdown comes after more than 400 White Helmet rescue workers and their families were evacuated from Syria by Israel "due to an immediate threat to their lives" over the weekend.
The humanitarian operation came amid an offensive by the Russian-backed Damascus regime to retake rebel-held areas in the south of the country.
The group have been taken to Jordan where they have been given temporary asylum.