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December 2015

The Battle In The Air Over Syria

Mon, 12/07/2015 - 01:42 — james

It has been a week since I predicted that the Russian and Syrian governments would formally declare a 'No-Fly Zone' over all of Syrian territory and thus making it crystal clear that any flight that does not have the permission of the Syrian government will be declared an act of war against the Syrian people. It didn't happen. At least not in the form I predicted (and hoped for). True, al-Assad has said in interviews that over flights without consent of the Syrian government are a breach of Syria's sovereignty.

We have also had a few days ago a spokesman from the military co-ordination centre in Damascus that any NATO flights that are not co-ordinated with the Syrian/Russian coalition will be considered as a potential threat and will be countered one way or another.

A high-ranking officer within the joint operation room in Damascus (consisting of Russia, Iran, Syria and Hezbollah) said “Damascus received sets of S -300 advanced Russian missiles, ready to enter active service. Soon, Syria will announce that any country using the airspace without coordinating with Damascus will be viewed as hostile and will shoot the jet/s without warning. Those willing to fight terrorism and coordinate with the military leadership will be granted safe corridors”.

And more recently from Finian Cunningham quoting a senior Syrian officer from the same Co-ordination Centre in Damascus-

Translated from Arabic language Alrai Media (thanks to the reliable Fort Russ Russian news site), the senior Syrian officer at the operations room is quoted as saying: “Soon Syria will announce that any country using the airspace without coordinating with Damascus will be viewed as hostile and [we] will shoot the jet down without warning. Those willing to fight terrorism and coordinate with the military leadership will be granted safe corridors.”

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/columnists/20151206/1031325664/syria-nato-planes-cunningham.html#ixzz3tc0HqkCP

President Putin has said similar things as has Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister. Perhaps Russia has been waiting till all their S 400 and S 300 air defence systems are in place and the air port at Sha’ayrat airport is ready to accept the extra 100 fighter jets needed to ensure complete lock-down of Syrian air space. But time is a wasting.