Update 4: The Russian Ministry of Defense cleared up the confusion surrounding the overnight downing of a Russian Ilyushin-20 reconnaissance plane on Tuesday when a spokesman revealed that Israel was indeed responsible for the attack, which resulted in the deaths of 15 Russian servicemen.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the plane was accidentally brought down by an aging Syrian S-200 defense system after Russia had scrambled its jets to respond to an attack by four Israeli F-16s on Syrian government targets. Israeli notified Russia of its attack over a shared hotline less than a minute before beginning the strike, giving the Kremlin little time to respond.

“As a result of the Israeli military’s irresponsible actions 15 Russian servicemen died,” said Defense Ministry Spokesman Gen. Igor Konashenkov.

Israel has carried out roughly 200 strikes in Syria over the past year and a half as it pushes back against Tehran’s growing presence in the war-torn battle zone.

Moscow has the right to “respond adequately” to the attack, Konashenkov said.

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Update 3: In a breaking report CNN has cited Pentagon officials who say the missing Russian aircraft with 14 service members on board, now subject of a Russian search-and-rescue operation, was accidentally shot down by Syrian missile defense.

Pentagon sources say further that Israel was responsible for the nighttime attack, which reportedly involved strikes by air and possibly by sea from the Mediterranean. Israel has yet to issue comment.

But Russia says its radar picked up a French warship firing in the area just before the Russian patrol aircraft went down.

According to CNN:

A Russian maritime patrol aircraft with multiple personnel on board was inadvertently shot down by Syrian regime anti-aircraft artillery on Monday after the Syrians came under attack by Israeli missiles, according to a US official with knowledge of the incident

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