PHOTO: Revolutionary Guards General Khosro Orouj — “Russian shouldn’t allow a single foreign aircraft to fly”
A senior commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has called on Russia to shoot down foreign warplanes flying over Syria.
Brigadier General Khosro Orouj, an advisor to the head of the Guards, said on Saturday that Moscow should use its S-400 air defense missiles and complained of Russian inaction: “The anti-aircraft systems that Russia has brought to Syria shouldn’t allow even one single aircraft to fly over the country, but this is not happening.”
Orouj did not specify a particular “enemy”, but Israel has carried out a series of airstrikes inside Syria, targeting missiles which could be sent to the Lebanese organization Hezbollah.
The Israelis also struck a convoy in early 2016, killing senior Hezbollah officers who were allegedly overseeing the construction of a missile launch site near the Golan Heights. And in May, Hezbollah’s overall commander in Syria, Mustafa Badreddine, may have been slain by an Israeli attack.
The US and other countries have also carried out aerial operations inside Syria, targeting the Islamic State, since September 2014.