An Airbus-320 with 172 passengers on board could have been targeted by Syrian missile defense systems because of Israel's air strikes at Damascus suburbs, official spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry Igor Konashenkov said.
The passenger plane narrowly escaped "the lethal zone of artillery fire," he noted, adding that the plane was escorted out of the danger zone and assisted in landing at the Hmeymim air base.
"Israeli General Staff's military operations in air using passenger jets for cover or block of response fire by Syrian missile systems is becoming a typical trait of Israeli Air Force," TASS cited Konashenkov as saying.
