Israel shoots down Syrian jet over Golan Heights

The Israeli military shot down a Syrian fighter jet that it said infiltrated its airspace over the Golan Heights on Tuesday morning – the first such downing in decades, heightening tensions in the volatile plateau.

The military said a "Syrian aircraft infiltrated into Israeli air space" in the morning hours and that it "intercepted the aircraft in mid-flight, using the Patriot air defense system."

The Israeli military would not say what type of aircraft was downed and said the circumstances of the incident were "unclear."

But an Israeli defense official identified the downed aircraft as a Sukhoi Su-24 Russian fighter plane. Previously, it was reported to have been a MiG aircraft. He said the Syrian jet penetrated 2,600 feet into Israeli air space and tried to return to Syria after the Patriot missile was fired.

It was the first such incident since the war with Lebanon in 1982, the Israeli defense official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said the aircraft had crossed into Israel in a "threatening way" and vowed to retaliate to any similar attempts in the future.

"We will not any allow element, whether it is a terror group or a state, to threaten our security and breach our sovereignty," he said. "We are committed first and foremost to ensure the security of the Israel's citizens and we will use all means at our disposal to do so."

The crew managed to abandon the plane in time and landed in Syrian territory, the Israeli official said.

Syrian state TV quoted a military source saying the downing of the plane, which coincided with US-led air strikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), came "in the framework of [Israel's] support for the terrorist [ISIL] and the Nusra Front.”

Israel has largely stayed on the sidelines of Syria's civil war raging across the border. But Israeli leaders appear increasingly nervous about the possibility of Al-Qaeda-linked fighters occupying the Golan's high ground over northern Israel.

Since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government erupted more than three years ago, the plateau has been tense, with a growing number of rockets and mortar rounds hitting the Israeli side, prompting occasional retaliatory fire.

Israel says some of the attacks have been accidental spillover, while others have been intentionally aimed at Israeli civilians and soldiers. It has always held Syria responsible for any cross-border fire.

Israel and Syria are bitter enemies who have fought several wars. Israel seized 463 square miles of the Golan Heights in 1967, then annexed it in 1981 in a move never recognized by the international community.

About 197 square miles of the Golan remain on the Syrian side of the cease-fire line, with United Nations forces overseeing a buffer zone stretching some 43 miles from Lebanon in the north to Jordan in the south.

While relations are hostile, the ruling Assad family in Syria has kept the border area with Israel quiet for most of the past 40 years. Israel is concerned that Assad's ouster could push the country into the hands of ISIL or Al-Qaeda-linked fighters, or plunge the region further into sectarian warfare.

In August, Israel shot down a drone that had entered its side of the Golan Heights from Syria.

Wire services