Israel Denies That Any of Its Aircraft Was Downed over Lebanon

Israel repeated its denial today that any of its aircraft was shot down over Lebanon yesterday by Syrian missiles. A military spokesman said the wreckage of an Israeli plane dis-

played on Damascus television last night was probably that of a “drone” (unmanned reconnaissance aircraft) that flew over Syria about 18 months ago and has been missing since then. He said the Syrians were using it for propaganda purposes in an attempt to substantiate their claim to have downed an Israeli plane yesterday.

Meanwhile, according to news media reports abroad, the Syrian missiles which were fired at Israeli planes during a reconnaissance flight over the Beka valley in Lebanon yesterday failed to hit their targets because the Israeli planes were equipped with sophisticated U.S. devices that scrambled the signals on the Syrian radar system which was directing the missiles.

There was no official confirmation here of these reports. There were also reports abroad that the Syrians had launched the missiles in order to test Israeli capabilities of dealing with them. There was no confirmation of these reports, either.