Israeli air strike targets Syrian weapons stocks near border

Israel has so far declined to comment on the raid Damascus - George Shami Israel turned threats to reality in the early hours of Wednesday, launching an air strike on a convoy close to the Syria-Lebanon border. Early reports suggested Israel had hit a weapons convoy on the Lebanon side of the border. But news later emerged that the attack had taken place inside Syrian airspace, reportedly hitting a convoy of Russian-produced SA-17 surface-to-air anti-aircraft missiles. Israel’s Maariv newspaper published a map detailing the path of the Israeli Air Force, en route to the air strike in Zabadani, seven kilometres from the border. The newspaper also quoted an US official as saying the raid hit a convoy of lorries carrying SA-17s. The strike made headlines across the Israeli press on Thursday, with officials and commentators quick to stress that Israel would never allow the transfer of sophisticated weaponry to Hezbollah, a close ally of both Syria and Iran. A Lebanese army statement said the latest airspace violation took place at 0200 hrs local time [0000 GMT] on Wednesday. It said four warplanes which flew in over the southernmost coastal town of Naqoura hovered over villages in southern Lebanon for several hours before leaving Lebanese airspace. It said similar flights by eight other warplanes were conducted on Tuesday. Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace occur on a daily basis and Lebanese authorities routinely lodge complaints at the United Nations. Israel and the United States have so far to comment on the strikes. The army announced it did not comment on such information, but asserted the situation on the Syrian border was normal. Russia's Foreign Ministry meanwhile said it was "deeply concerned" by the Syrian allegations and that it was taking "urgent measures" to clarify the situation. "If this information is confirmed, then we are dealing with unprovoked strikes against targets located on the territory of a sovereign state, which brazenly infringes on the UN Charter and is unacceptable, no matter the motive used for its justification," said a ministry statement. Russia has outraged Western and Arab nations by refusing to join international calls for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down and continues to supply its Soviet-era ally with weapons. It has vetoed three Security Council resolutions sanctioning Assad for violence that the United Nations estimates has killed more than 60,000 people since it broke out in mid-March 2011. The Syrian army has meanwhile claimed the air raid targeted a scientific research centre, not a weapons convoy. Four Israeli warplanes entered Syria's airspace via Jabal el-Sheikh, flying at low altitude and under the radar, the Syrian army said, adding that two site workers were killed. "They carried out an act of aggression, bombarding the site, causing large-scale material damage and destroying the building," Syria’s state-owned SANA news agency quoted the military as saying. The pro-government press quoted an army statement, which claimed: “Israeli fighter jets violated our airspace at dawn today and carried out a direct strike on a scientific research centre in charge of raising our level of resistance and self-defence." The centre in Jermana, north-west of the capital Damascus, was damaged in the attack, state TV said. Two workers were killed and five others wounded in the raid. The army meanwhile denied reports Israeli forces had launched an overnight strike on a weapons convoy from Syria near the border with Lebanon. Israel has previously expressed concern that Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons could fall into the hands of Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah group, an ally of the Damascus regime, or other militant organisations. Israel’s Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom told a radio station on Sunday that any sign of Syria was losing its grip on weapons stocks, including chemical weapons, could lead to a pre-emptive strike by Israel. An earlier report had detailed Syria’s missile arsenal, which could pose a major threat to Israel and tip the balance in favour of Hezbollah in any future conflict. The report referred to anti-aircraft missiles, like SA-17s, which are capable of hitting aircraft at low altitude. Scud-D land missiles, with a range of 7,500 kilometres, could also threaten Israeli national security, the report claimed. In comments before reports of the attack emerged, Amnon Sofrin said Israel was unlikely to hit chemical weapons stocks from the air because of the environmental risks. "When you go and attack a chemical weapons depot, you're going to do unwarranted damage because every part will leak out and can cause damage to many residents.” "But if you know of a convoy leading these kind of weapon systems from Syria to Lebanon,” Sofrin added, “you can send a unit to the proper place and try to halt it" on the ground.” Former Mossad chief Danny Yatom said: "When we said we mustn’t let terrorists lay a hand on Syrian weapons, we meant it." According to Yatom, if foreign reports of an Israeli bombardment inside Syria were true, it meant Israel had clear indication that Hezbollah had “crossed a line.” "That would be a red line that we have drawn,” Yatom claimed. “Israel would be right to do anything it can do to enforce it." The ex-Mossad chief doubted either Hezbollah or the Bashar al-Assad regime would respond. "I estimate that no such response will occur, since neither Hezbollah nor the Syrians have a motive to respond,” he said. “Assad is preoccupied with his own affairs and Hezbollah is fully engaged in effort to assist him, so they wouldn’t want to fight an even greater war." Reserve Brigadier General Shimon Shapira, a researcher at the Jerusalem Centre for Public Policy, meanwhile said: “I do not believe that Hezbollah wants chemical weapons. The process of installing an explosive warhead on a rocket is very complex and I’m not sure they have the experience to do so.”   Additional reporting: AFP