by Israel Hayom Staff and News Agencies
Israeli, Western sources tell foreign media that Israeli aircraft struck Iranian Fateh-110 missiles stored at a warehouse at Damascus International Airport that were bound for Hezbollah • Second strike in three days includes Syrian military installations around Damascus.
A view of the Jamraya suburb of Damascus on Google Maps
Photo credit: Google Maps  |
Israel carried out its second air strike in three days on targets in Syria early on Sunday, Israeli and Western intelligence sources said. The attack shook Damascus with a series of powerful blasts and drove columns of fire into the night sky.
Syria condemned the attacks, as did Iran, with the latter offering to train the Syrian army if needed. Israel declined to comment officially on the reported attacks in Syria, but anonymous Israeli officials told AFP, AP, Reuters and Israel Radio that Israel struck an Iranian arms shipment destined for Hezbollah. According to Reuters, a Western intelligence source said on Sunday that the overnight attack targeted a missile shipment that was "in transit" from Iran to Hezbollah.
The IDF has deployed two Iron Dome batteries to northern Israel, and on Sunday canceled a week-long, nationwide chemical weapons preparedness drill. Israel Radio reported that the IDF had denied reports by media affiliated with Hezbollah that an IAF warplane was hit by Syrian anti-aircraft weaponry overnight Saturday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to depart Israel for a week-long state visit to China on Sunday afternoon, but postponed his departure by several hours, convening the Diplomatic-Security Cabinet to discuss the latest developments. Netanyahu's departure comes despite the increasing tension and fears that either Syria or Hezbollah will retaliate, and could indicate the Israel does not believe that a retaliation is imminent. Netanyahu did not mention Syria in his comments at the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday morning.
Official Syrian state media accused Israel of carrying out a raid on a military facility just north of the capital. At least 40 blasts were heard across the capital following the alleged Israeli attack, which according to activists, targeted the Syrian government's security forces sites in Damascus, including the Maher al-Assad Fourth Division Military Group and the weapon depot of the Syrian Republican Guard in Jamraya. Syrian state media denied these attacks.
The explosions in Damascus came soon after an unnamed Israeli official said Israel had carried out an airstrike on Thursday night targeting missiles in Syria that were to be delivered to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In that earlier strike, the Israel Air Force targeted Iranian Fateh-110 missiles that were being stored at Damascus International Airport, The New York Times reported, citing an American official. The missiles were reportedly being held in a warehouse at the airport that was under the control of operatives from Hezbollah and Iran's paramilitary Quds Force.
The New York Times reported that IAF planes fired air-to-ground weapons in Thursday's strike, apparently staying clear of Syrian airspace and operating in the skies over neighboring Lebanon.
The target of Sunday's attack, according to Syrian media, was the same Jamraya military research center which was reportedly hit by Israel in an airstrike in January. Jamraya, on the northern outskirts of Damascus, is just 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the Lebanese border.
In the January strike, Israel reportedly struck a convoy of SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles that were being moved from Syria to Lebanon.
Video footage uploaded onto the Internet by activists on Sunday showed a series of explosions. One lit up the skyline over the city, while another sent up a tower of flames and secondary blasts.
The Western intelligence source told Reuters that Israel carried out the attack and the operation hit Iranian-supplied missiles that were en route to Hezbollah.
"In last night's attack, as in the previous one, what was attacked were stores of Fateh-110 missiles that were in transit from Iran to Hezbollah," the source said.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the scale of the attack meant it was beyond the military capability of Syrian rebels, and quoted eyewitnesses in the area as saying they saw jets in the sky at the time of the blasts.
The observatory said the blasts hit Jamraya as well as a nearby ammunition depot. Other activists said a missile brigade and two Republican Guard battalions may also have been targeted in the heavily militarized area just north of Damascus.
Syria's state television said the strikes were a response to recent military gains by President Bashar al-Assad's forces against rebels.
"The new Israeli attack is an attempt to raise the morale of the terrorist groups which have been reeling from strikes by our noble army," it said.
Reports by activists and state media are difficult to verify in Syria because of restrictions on journalists operating there.
Sunday's attack was the third reported Israeli strike inside Syria since late January, but there was no immediate comment from Israeli officials.
"We don't respond to this kind of report," an Israeli military spokeswoman said.
Israel has repeatedly made clear it is prepared to use force to prevent advanced weaponry from Syria reaching Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Assad regime and Hezbollah are both allied with Iran.
"Syria is a very important part of the network that Iran has built," former Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Yadlin told Army Radio on Sunday. "Iran is testing the firmness of Israel and the U.S. regarding red lines. What Iran is seeing in Syria is that at least some of the players mean what they say [about what will happen] when their red lines are crossed."
MK Tzachi Hanegbi (Likud) told Army Radio on Sunday that "what we want to mainly ensure is that within the chaos in Syria, Hezbollah doesn't get strong enough that it will be motivated to act against us, something that would drag us into a conflict with Hezbollah in which we would absorb more losses than in the past because we didn't hit their growing capabilities in time."
Uzi Rubin, an Israeli missile expert and former defense official said the Fateh-110 missile "is better than the Scud, it has a half-ton warhead." Iran has said it adapted the missile for anti-ship use by installing a guidance system, he said.
The U.S. State Department and Pentagon had no immediate comment and the Israeli Embassy in Washington declined to comment.
There was no immediate indication of how Syria would respond to Sunday's attack. After the reported Israeli airstrike in January, Syria protested to the United Nations and the Syrian ambassador to Lebanon promised a "surprise decision," but no direct military retaliation followed.
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=9081
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