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Who shot down the Russian Il-20 over Syria?
Summary
A retrospective on 18 September 2018, when the fate of a Russian reconnaissance plane became clear and Moscow pointed the finger at Israel.
Who was responsible for the loss of a Russian reconnaissance aircraft over the Mediterranean? By 18 September 2018, the question had an answer of sorts, and it came with an accusation attached.
News emerged on that date that the Ilyushin Il-20, which had been missing since Monday with fourteen people on board, had been shot down. Russia accused Israel of not giving enough warning before launching its attacks, which, in Moscow's account, led Syria to fire on the plane.
The night the plane vanished
The aircraft had disappeared from radar on 17 September 2018, during a missile attack on Syria's Latakia Governorate. It was a Russian Air Force reconnaissance plane carrying 14 servicemen. A U.S. official claimed that the Syrian Army had inadvertently shot it down while trying to intercept missiles. Russia, for its part, said it had detected a missile launch from a French FREMM multipurpose frigate.
Later accounts put the crew toll at 15 and described the Israeli Air Force as the force that carried out the strikes. The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged striking a Syrian weapons facility and expressed sorrow for the loss of life caused by Syrian fire. Russia accused the Israeli air force of hiding behind the Russian aircraft, putting it in the line of fire.
A deal struck the same day
The incident unfolded against another development in Syria. On 17 September 2018, Russia and Turkey announced a demilitarised zone in Syria's Idlib Governorate and ruled out any military operations there. According to later accounts, the strikes came a few hours after the agreement, which postponed an imminent offensive by Syrian forces and their allies.
So within a single day, two stories ran side by side: an arrangement meant to hold back a battle in Idlib, and the loss of an aircraft in a separate part of the war. On 18 September 2018, the second was still being defined by competing accounts, with Washington, Moscow and, in due course, Israel each describing it in their own terms.
