Social media users widely praise Syria’s downing of Israeli warplane

The news about the downing of an intruding Israeli F-16 warplane by the Syrian military has gone viral on the internet, with Press TV’s readers and audience widely lauding the development on the social media.

After Press TV’s website published the news on Saturday, the item received thousands of hits and netizens posted dozens of comments on Press TV’s website and social media within a matter of minutes.

Read more:

• Syria shoots down Israeli F-16 jet, pilots eject

Social media users also widely shared and retweeted Press TV’s updates on the Israeli jet crash in the cyber space.

While the majority of comments praised the Syrian army’s achievement and called for more similar responses against Israel’s acts of aggression, some other users warned of imminent Israeli retaliatory measures against Syria and its allies.

Commenting on Press TV’s website, a user going by the name of Gharib3 wrote, “Well done. Every victory counts and adds up. It is nice to send more drones to invite planes to the hellfire.”

“This is great shock for the Zionist criminals as this was their most advanced plane,” another user commented.

Some other readers pointed to the simultaneous violations of Syria’s territorial integrity by both Israel and Turkey in two separate fronts and called for more global attention to the issue.

Turkish forces “are attacking Syria from north and their ancestors ISISraelis are attacking from south and from sky, that is not an accident,” wrote another user, JewJets7, in a comment.

Syria’s state TV cited a military official as saying earlier on Saturday that Syrian aerial defense had responded to Israeli “aggression” against an army base in the center of the Arab country.

According to the official, more than one Israeli aircraft had been hit.

Later on Saturday, the Israeli military confirmed that one F-16 had gone down in northern Israel, and that its two pilots had ejected and been located and transferred to hospital. The Israeli army said later that one of the pilots was in serious condition.

The Israeli military claimed that it had attacked positions inside the Syrian territory after it intercepted a drone launched from Syria on Saturday.

A pro-Syrian military alliance, however, said the Israeli claim about a drone intrusion was bogus.

The alliance said in a statement that Israel had targeted a drone base in Syria whose unmanned aircraft were used against the Daesh terrorist group.

Press TV’s social media updates on the issue went viral on Twitter and Facebook, with users debating different angles of Syria’s fresh military achievement.

“If Israel does not want planes shot down they should keep them in Israel, not attacking states for this plan that has the US destroying countries for Israel,” user @BREAKING_PTV commented under a Press TV tweet.

“It is just a matter of time, the bully will be tamed,” another Twitter user, @bello_mohbelbp, commented.

Many netizens used the abbreviation of ISIS and the acronym of Daesh when they referred to Israel.

“ISIS Air Force F-16 Got Shot Down by Syria!” user @Occupy007 wrote under another tweet.

Meanwhile, some online users pointed to the possibility of a harsh retaliatory response by Israel.

“Get ready Syria for nonstop bombing for one week,” Facebook user Aditya Pandhare wrote in a comment.

Other users, however, noted that Syria and its allies were capable of launching more crippling attacks against Israel.

“It happened without a declaration of war. Once you go for war with Hezbollah or Iran, you will regret why you declared war,” Facebook user Saifi Mohd pointed out.

Over the past years, Israel has frequently attacked targets in Syria, often claiming that it hit positions or convoys belonging to Iran. This is while the Islamic Republic says it has no military presence in the Syrian territory, only offering military advisory assistance to the Syrian government fighting an all-out foreign-sponsored militancy.

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www.presstv.co.uk