Syria warns Israel of 'more surprises' as tensions boil over following Iranian drone incident

Israel warned Syrian President Bashar Assad to stop letting his war-torn country be used by Iran as a launching pad for attacks, and tensions in the region remained high Tuesday following a weekend skirmish and a new Syrian threat of "more surprises."

The warning from Syria's Assistant Foreign Minister Ayman Sussan came after an Israeli fighter jet was shot down inside Syrian territory Saturday as it was flying home from a blitz that reportedly wiped out around half of Syria’s anti-aircraft batteries. The raid was directed at a site Jerusalem believes Iran used to launch a drone that was destroyed in Israel earlier in the day.

“God willing, they will see more surprises whenever they try to attack Syria,” Sussan was quoted by Reuters as saying during a news conference in Damascus.

He added Syria has “full confidence the aggressor will be greatly surprised, because it thought this war -- this war of attrition Syria has been exposed to for years -- had made it incapable of confronting attacks.”

The drone Iran launched was based off a U.S. model the Islamic Republic captured during the Obama administration, according to Israeli officials. The two Israeli pilots ejected from the F-16 jet when it came under Syrian anti-aircraft fire and suffered only minor injuries.

“We do not know what the mission of the Iranian drone was. It is their most advanced drone and they did not expect our radar to detect its penetration into our territory,” an unnamed senior Israeli defense official told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday, a day after the infiltration. “Our aerial freedom will not be harmed. We will continue to destroy targets.”