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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria quits Lebanon air defence posts
2005-03-28
Syrian troops have abandoned their last air defence positions in neighbouring Lebanon and crossed the border home. Sunday's move is the last such redeployment expected this month, security sources said. Syrian air force units left a site in the area of Dhihayr al-Baydar and crossed the border into Syria, an Aljazeera correspondent in Lebanon reported. To the south of Bekaa province, a Syrian troop carrier was seen leaving a site in Bar al-Yas and heading to the border area of al-Masnaa. An estimated 1000 Syrian soldiers have left Lebanon in the past 10 days.

Facing international pressure and Lebanese protests, Syria has promised to withdraw all the military personnel, intelligence agents and equipment it poured into Lebanon early in the country's 1975-1990 civil war. Damascus has completed the first stage of a two-phase withdrawal plan, pulling back to the eastern Bekaa Valley and withdrawing more than a third of its 14,000 troops completely. Last week, it pulled troops out of around a dozen positions in the Bekaa. On Sunday, it left its two largest and last anti-aircraft positions, the Lebanese security sources said. A Syrian-Lebanese military committee is to meet in early April to set a timeline for withdrawing remaining forces.
Posted by:Fred

#4  Indian call center?
Posted by: mojo   2005-03-28 5:51:06 PM  

#3  Syrian Mig 21 and Mig 25s..... even if flyable they're now deathtraps. Who does the maintenance on the Mig 29s?
Posted by: Shipman   2005-03-28 3:35:55 PM  

#2  "During the Israel's Operation Peace for Galilee in 1982 Israeli aircraft struck Syrian surface-to-air missiles, resulting in the destruction of nineteen sites and the damaging of four. Israeli aerial mastery was confirmed in the skies over the Biqa Valley. At the conclusion of the first week of the war, after the participation of approximately 100 combat planes on each side, a total of 86 Syrian MiG-21, MiG-23, and Sukhoi-22 aircraft had been shot down with no Israeli losses.

When Syrian fighter aircraft scrambled to prevent Israeli aircraft flying over eastern Lebanon in November 1985, two Syrian MiG-23s were shot down in Syrian airspace. Syria responded by deploying mobile SA-6 and SA-8 SAMs into eastern Lebanon and by setting up SA-2 sites along its border with Lebanon. Thereafter, the potential for rapid escalation in Syrian-Israeli hostilities became a source of concern on both sides. Following the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, Syrian influence and control expanded to eastern Lebanon and the Biqa Valley, where Syria maintained about two divisions; about six divisions were redeployed in the Damascus-Golan Heights region.

Throughout the rest of the 1980s and into the 1990s Syria's Air Force experienced difficulties keeping its aircraft operational and providing sufficient flight hours for pilots. Syria was able to recently acquire Russian 14 Su-27Sks. The bulk of Syria's Air Force is comprised of Su-22s, MiG-23s and MiG-21s. The number of more modern aircraft is rather small, with only 20 Su-24s, possibly 14 MiG-29 SMTs, some 25 MiG-25s and 22 MiG-29s."

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/syria/airforce.htm
Posted by: mojo   2005-03-28 11:49:27 AM  

#1  What air defence? Israel flew where ever they felt necessary.
Posted by: Poison Reverse   2005-03-28 10:20:08 AM  

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