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WORLD / Middle East
US officials confirm Israel strike on Syria
(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-09-13 15:24
WASHINGTON -- US officials on Wednesday confirmed Israel launched air
strikes against Syria last week and said they were to target weapons
Israel believes were headed for the militant group Hezbollah.
A Syrian car with a poster of Syrian President Bashara al-Assad parks
opposite an Israeli military post on the occupied Golan Heights,
September 6, 2007. [Reuters]
One defense official dismissed speculation Israel had aimed for any
nuclear-related target. Two others said the target included weapons
Israeli and US officials have said Iran provides to Hezbollah through
Syria.
"They saw a weapons flow," one official said, referring to weapons caches
intended for Hezbollah, which fired thousands of rockets into Israel
during a 36-day conflict last year.
It was still unclear whether Israel hit its targets in the September 6
air strikes.
Israel has declined comment on the strikes. Syria says the munitions
dropped by Israel did no damage.
One US defense official, speaking only on condition of anonymity, said
the significance of the strikes was not whether Israel hit its targets,
but rather that it displayed a willingness to take military action.
Syria has protested to the United Nations about the air strikes. On
Wednesday, Syria's UN ambassador said Israel's motive was to torpedo
peace moves.
SYRIA AT UN
"We think the Israeli purpose behind such an aggressive act is to torpedo
the peace process, to torpedo the idea of holding an international
conference," Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari told reporters.
Asked about Hezbollah's weapons, Ja'afari said, "This is blah, blah. This
is nonsense, this is an unfounded statement. It is not up to the Israelis
or anyone else to assess what we have in Syria."
"There was no target," he added. "They dropped their munitions. They were
running away after they were confronted by our air defense."
Israeli public radio stations, which like all media in the country are
under military censorship, led morning news bulletins with a New York
Times report that US officials had said Israel carried out the strikes --
and that US officials believed Syria may have obtained nuclear material.
While some officials speculated that Syria and North Korea had opened
some form of cooperation on nuclear weapons, other US officials and
former intelligence officials told Reuters that seemed unlikely and
technically difficult.
A European diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity told Reuters
satellite surveillance of an alleged nuclear site in Syria had been
inconclusive due to poor weather. However, he said monitoring of this
site would continue.
Israeli jets last struck in 2003 across a border that remains tense but
quiet 34 years after the last war between the two neighbors ended in an
edgy ceasefire. In June last year Syrian guns opened fire on Israeli
aircraft over Syria.
Israel has urged Syria to stop supporting militant Palestinian groups and
the Lebanese movement Hezbollah.
Some Israeli intelligence officials also have suggested Syria's
government might be ready to try to take by force parts of the Golan
Heights captured by Israel in the war of 1967.
Syrian officials have said Syria was seeking peaceful means to recover
the Golan, although some also have suggested force remained an option if
diplomacy failed. Israeli-Syrian peace efforts have been stalled for
seven years.
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