Israeli Airstrike in Syria Targets Arms Convoy, U.S. Says
By ISABEL KERSHNER and MICHAEL R. GORDON
Published: January 30, 2013
JERUSALEM — Israeli warplanes carried out a strike deep inside Syrian
territory on Wednesday, American officials reported, saying they
believed the target was a convoy carrying sophisticated antiaircraft
weaponry on the outskirts of Damascus that was intended for the
Hezbollah Shiite militia in Lebanon.
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The American officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Israel
had notified the United States about the attack, which the Syrian
government condemned as an act of “arrogance and aggression.” Israel’s
move demonstrated its determination to ensure that Hezbollah — its arch
foe in the north — is unable to take advantage of the chaos in Syria to bolster its arsenal significantly.
The predawn strike was the first time in more than five years that
Israel’s air force had attacked a target in Syria. While there was no
expectation that the beleaguered Assad government had an interest in
retaliating, the strike raised concerns that the Syrian civil war had
continued to spread beyond its border.
In a statement, the Syrian military denied that a convoy had been
struck. It said the attack had hit a scientific research facility in the
Damascus suburbs that was used to improve Syria’s defenses, and called
the attack “a flagrant breach of Syrian sovereignty and airspace.”
Israeli officials would not confirm the airstrike, a common tactic here.
But it came after days of intense security consultations with Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the possible movement of chemical
and other weapons around Syria, and warnings that Jerusalem would take
action to thwart any possible transfers to Hezbollah.
Thousands of Israelis have crowded gas-mask distribution centers over
the last two days. On Sunday, Israel deployed its Iron Dome missile
defense system in the north, near Haifa, which was heavily bombed during
the 2006 war with Lebanon.
Syria and Israel are technically in a state of war but have long
maintained an uneasy peace along their decades-old armistice line.
Israel has mostly watched warily and tried to stay out of Syria’s raging
civil war, fearful of provoking a wider confrontation with Iran and
Hezbollah. In November, however, after several mortars fell on Israel’s
side of the border, its tanks struck a Syrian artillery unit.
Several analysts said that despite the increased tensions, they thought
the likelihood of retaliation for the airstrike was relatively low.
“It is necessary and correct to prepare for deterioration — that
scenario exists,” Danny Yatom, a former chief of the Mossad, Israel’s
intelligence agency, told Ynet, a news Web site. “But in my assessment,
there will not be a reaction, because neither Hezbollah nor the Syrians
have an interest in retaliating.”
Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, “is deep in his own troubles,” Mr.
Yatom said, “and Hezbollah is making a great effort to assist him, in
parallel with its efforts to obtain weapons, so they won’t want to
broaden the circle of fighting.”
In the United States, the State Department and Defense Department would not comment on reports of the strike.
The episode illustrated how the escalating violence in Syria, which has
already killed more than 60,000, is drawing in neighboring states and
threatening to destabilize the region further.
Iran has firmly allied itself with Mr. Assad, sending personnel from its
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Quds Force to Syria and ferrying military
equipment to Syria through Iraqi airspace.
Hezbollah, which plays a decisive role in Lebanese politics and has
supported Mr. Assad during the uprising by providing training and
logistical support to his forces, has long relied on Syria as both a
source of weapons and a conduit for weapons flowing from Iran. Some
analysts think Hezbollah may be trying to stock up on weapons in case
Mr. Assad falls and is replaced by a leadership that is hostile to the
militia.
One American official said the trucks targeted on Wednesday were
believed to have been carrying sophisticated SA-17 antiaircraft weapons.
Hezbollah’s possession of such weapons would be a serious worry for the
Israeli government, said Matthew Levitt, a former intelligence official who is at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
“Israel is able to fly reconnaissance flights over Lebanon with impunity
right now,” Mr. Levitt said. “This could cut into its ability to
conduct aerial intelligence. The passing along of weapons to Hezbollah
by the regime is a real concern.”
While some analysts said the Assad government might be providing the
weapons to Hezbollah as a reward for its support, others were skeptical
that Syria would relinquish such a sophisticated system.
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Hezbollah has boasted that it has replenished and increased its weapons
stocks since the 2006 war with Israel. During that war, Israeli
bombardments destroyed some of its arms, and other missiles were used in
a barrage that killed Israelis as far south as Haifa and that drove
residents of northern Israel into shelters.
The Syrian statement, carried by state television, said an unidentified
number of Israeli jets flying below radar had hit the research facility
in the Jimraya district, killing two people and causing “huge material
damage.” It cast the attack as “another addition to the history of
Israeli occupation, aggression and criminality against Arabs and
Muslims.”
“The Syrian government points out to the international community that
this Israeli arrogance and aggression is dangerous for Syrian
sovereignty,” the statement said, “and stresses that such criminal acts
will not weaken Syria’s role nor will discourage Syrians from continuing
to support resistance movements and just Arab causes, particularly the Palestinian issue.”
The Lebanese Army said in a statement on Wednesday that Israeli
warplanes had carried out two sorties, circling over Lebanon for hours
on Tuesday and before dawn on Wednesday, but made no mention of any
attacks.
Israel has long maintained a policy of silence on pre-emptive military
strikes. In October, officials refused to discuss an accusation by Sudan
that Israeli airstrikes had destroyed a weapons factory in Khartoum, its capital. Israel also never admitted to the bombing of a Syrian nuclear reactor
in 2007; Syria kept mum about that attack, too, and the ambiguity
allowed the event to pass without Damascus feeling pressure to
retaliate.
Amnon Sofrin, a retired brigadier general and former Israeli
intelligence officer, told reporters here on Wednesday that Hezbollah,
which is known to have been storing some of its more advanced weapons in
Syria, was now eager to move everything it could to Lebanon. He said
Israel was carefully watching for convoys transferring weapons systems
from Syria to Lebanon.
Israel has made it clear that if the Syrian government loses control
over its chemical weapons or transfers them to Hezbollah, Israel will
feel compelled to act. Avi Dichter, the minister for the home front,
told Israel Radio on Tuesday that options to prevent Syria from using or
transferring the weapons included deterrence and “attempts to hit the
stockpiles.”
“Everything will have ramifications,” Mr. Dichter said. “The stockpiles
are not always in places where operative thinking is possible. It could
be that hitting the stockpiles will also mean hitting people. Israel has
no intention of hitting residents of Syria.”
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