A-50 aircraft. IMAGE: Marina Lystseva/TASS
On April 10, a reconnaissance aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces was targeted with a missile while flying over the northwestern Syrian region of Greater Idlib.
The missile failed to reach the aircraft, that went on to complete its sortie over Greater Idlib. The aircraft was identified by aviation observers in Greater Idlib, who provide the region’s militants with early warning, as a “Swan,” a term usually used to refer to the Beriev A-50 airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) plane.
At least one A-50 is deployed in Hmeimim Air Base on the Syrian coast. The plane conducts reconnaissance sorties over Greater Idlib on a regular basis.
Greater Idlib aviation observers claimed that the anti-aircraft missile was fired by the Turkish military. Yet, it is more likely that the missile was fired by militants deployed near one of the Turkish posts in the region.
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Al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the de-facto ruler of Greater Idlib, is known to be in possession of several man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADs).
According to a recent report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Turkish military trained 150 militants in Greater Idlib on the use of MANPADs. The training course was held at a Turkish military camp near the town of Almastumah in the southern countryside of Idlib in January.
A day earlier, at least right Russian airstrikes targeted positions of HTS and its allies in the southern countryside of Idlib.
Several attempts to target Russian aircraft over Greater Idlib were reported over the last year. These attempts represent a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement in the region, which was brokered by Russia and Turkey on 5 March 2020.
