Israeli Jets Deliberately Used Russian IL-20 As Shield Against Missiles - Defense Ministry

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd September, 2018) Israeli jet deliberately used the Russian Il-20 as a shield against Syrian missiles on September 17, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday, releasing information on the downing the Russian jet.

"I would like to put special emphasis on the fact that the Israeli jets saw the Russian Ilyushin Il-20 and used it as a shield against the anti-aircraft missiles," Konashenkov said at a briefing.

He also said that at 21:59 local time one of the Israeli jets started maneuvered toward the Il-20, and the Syrian air defense units considered this maneuver to be another attack on the part of Israel.

Konashenkov added that that the crew of Il-20 started emergent decent after it was it was hit, at 22:03 local time.

Konashenkov added that the Israeli jets remained in the area where IL-20 was shot down for 10 minutes, while the Russian side had informed Israel that there had been an incident with the Russian military jet and they wanted to deploy rescue forces.

"At 22:53 - which is 50 minutes after the Russian plane was hit by a missile, the colonel of the Israeli Air Force Command Centre, who was the officer on duty, came on the radio and said: 'We got your information that the Ilyushin Il-20 is in distress. We have cleared the area. If you need assistance, we are ready to help,'" he said.