Syrian air defense system appears operational in satellite images

Photos published by a leading Israeli satellite imaging firm appear to show Syria’s fourth S-300 launcher in an erect position and ready for use.

By World Israel News Staff

Israeli firm ImageSat International (ISI) posted photos on Sunday of Syria’s latest S-300 battery. This launcher represents the fourth S-300 installation of its kind, which include radar systems and consist of long-range Russian-made surface-to-air missiles designed to defend against aircraft and cruise missiles.

S-300 systems were developed to be fully automated and these four batteries are located in western Syria near Masyaf, several hundred miles from the Israeli border.

The ISI images also showed a road from the S-300 batteries to a nearby base, the Maariv daily reported

While Syria has been mired in a bloody civil war for the past eight years, it has also faced hundreds of airstrikes from Israel, which targets Iranian military assets and weapons in transit to the Hezbollah terror group.

Both Iran and Hezbollah have vowed to destroy the Jewish state and have been given free rein within Syria to carry out military operations, including planning and mounting attacks on Israel.

Since 2017, Israel has pounded Iranian positions in Syria during overnight strikes that have killed members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary group that assists the Islamic Republic’s terror proxies throughout the region.

Russia announced it would transfer the S-300 batteries to its ally Syria after the latter shot down a Russian spy plane in September 2018 in a botched attempt to chase off Israeli fighter jets that had just struck targets in Syria. Fifteen Russian servicemen died in the Syrian retaliatory strike, which both Syria and Russia blamed on Israel.