Representatives of the International Red Cross today visited the two Syrian Air Force officers who landed their MIG-17 interceptor jets in Israel last week, apparently because of a navigational error. The representatives delivered letters from the pilots’ families and received letters from the pilots addressed to Syria.
Damascus radio said that Israel cannot hold the pilots as prisoners of war because “they did not participate in the last war (of June, 1967)…since they graduated after the June war.” Reports from Beirut, Lebanon today said that 185 Syrian Army officers and 12 pilots flying MIG fighters defected to Iraq yesterday after failing to pull off a coup in Damascus. A military coup in Baghdad last month overthrew the Iraqi Government.
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