Israel Launches Airstrike in Syrian Capital (Video); Iran Calls for Stand Against Israel after Syria Attack; Egypt, Turkey and Lebanon Condemn Israeli Attack on Syria
Syria says the recent Israeli airstrikes against its territory are a "flagrant violation of international law" and have made the Middle East "more dangerous." Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi read out a Cabinet statement to reporters Sunday in Damascus following an emergency government meeting. Al-Zoubi says the Israeli attack is evidence of the Jewish state's links with Islamic extremist groups trying to overthrow President Bashar Assad's regime. He adds that Syria has the right and the duty "to defend its people by all available means." [AP]
Israel launches airstrike in Syrian capital
May 5, 2013AP - Israel launched an airstrike in the Syrian capital Sunday targeting a shipment of extremely accurate guided Iranian-made missiles believed to be on their way to Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, an intelligence official in the Middle East said.
The attack, the second in three days, signaled a sharp escalation of Israel's involvement in Syria's bloody civil war.
The confirmation came hours after Syria's state media reported that Israeli missiles struck a research center near the Syrian capital, setting off explosions and causing casualties.
The official told The Associated Press that, as with Friday's strike, the target was Fatah 110 missiles, which have very precise guidance systems with better aim than anything Hezbollah has in its arsenal.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to disclose information about a secret military operation to the media.
Israel has said it will not allow sophisticated weapons to flow from Syria to the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad and a heavily armed foe of the Jewish state.
An airstrike in January also targeted weapons apparently bound for Hezbollah, Israeli and U.S. officials have said.
The Syrian state news agency SANA reported early Sunday that explosions went off at the Jamraya research center near Damascus, causing casualties.
"Initial reports point to these explosions being a result of Israeli missiles that targeted the research center in Jamraya," SANA said.A Syrian activist group, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, also reported large explosions in the area of Jamraya, a military and scientific research facility northwest of Damascus, about 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the Lebanese border.
An amateur video said to be shot early Sunday in the Damascus area showed a huge ball of fire lighting up the night sky. The video appeared genuine and corresponded to other Associated Press reporting.
Israel's first airstrike in Syria, in January, also struck Jamraya.
At the time, a U.S. official said Israel targeted trucks next to the research center that carried SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles. The strikes hit both the trucks and the research facility, the official said. The Syrian military didn't confirm a hit on a weapons shipment at the time, saying only that Israeli warplanes bombed the research center.
Israeli lawmaker Shaul Mofaz, a former defense minister and a former chief of staff, declined to confirm the airstrike but said Israel is concerned about weapons falling into the hands of the Islamic militant group amid the chaos of Syria's civil war.
"We must remember that the Syrian system is falling apart and Iran and Hezbollah are involved up to their necks in Syria helping Bashar Assad," he told Israel Radio. "There are dangers of weapons trickling to the Hezbollah and chemical weapons trickling to irresponsible groups like al-Qaida."
Israel strikes open up "all possibilities": Syrian minister
May 5, 2012Reuters - Syrian Information Minister Omran Zoabi said on Sunday that Israeli air strikes against three targets on the outskirts of Damascus "open the door to all possibilities."
The minister's comments at a press conference came after an emergency cabinet meeting organized to respond to what a Western source said was a new strike on Iranian missiles bound for Lebanon's Hezbollah. Although Zoabi did not hint at a concrete course of action, he said it was Damascus's duty to protect the state from any "domestic or foreign attack through all available means."
Sunday's attack is the third Israeli assault this year on Syrian soil. Previous strikes on Syria by Israel -- which commands one of the most advanced militaries in the world and
is backed by the United States -- have not elicited a military response
from Syria or its allies Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah.
Israel declined to
confirm the strike so as not to pressure Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad into serious retaliation, according to a confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Iran calls for stand against Israel after Syria attack
May 5, 2013Reuters - Iran called on the region to unite against Israel after a reported attack on Syria and said it was ready to train the Damascus government's army.
Israel carried out its second air strike in days on Syria early on Sunday, targeting Iranian-supplied missiles headed for Lebanon's Hezbollah, a Western intelligence source said.
Tehran
on Sunday denied the attack was aimed at "its missiles destined for
Hezbollah resistance fighters in Lebanon," according to the Islamic
state's English-language Press TV.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast urged countries in the region to stand against the "assault", the Fars news agency reported on Sunday.
Iranian army ground forces commander Ahmad Reza Pourdastan said on Sunday Iran was ready to support its ally.
"Syria has a powerful army and with the structure and experience it has against the Zionist regime (Israel) it can definitely defend itself and there is no need for intervention by other countries," Pourdastan said, according to Fars.Iran has denied supporting Assad militarily, although Western diplomats have said Iranian weapons pour into Syria via Iraq, Turkey, and Lebanon.
"But if they need training we can help them," he added.
Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in January Tehran would consider an attack on Syria an attack on itself.
Egypt condemns Israeli attack on Syria
May 5, 2013Reuters - Egypt condemned an Israeli attack on Syria on Sunday, saying it complicated a crisis that Cairo was trying to help resolve.
Israel carried out its second air strike in days on Syria, targeting Iranian-supplied missiles headed for Lebanon's Hezbollah, a Western intelligence source said.
In a statement, Egypt's presidency said the attack was a violation of international law and a threat to regional security and stability that "made the situation more complicated".
Egypt's Islamist leaders came to power last year after a popular uprising in 2011 and have been critical of the Syrian government's efforts to put down an insurgency that erupted weeks after Egypt's street revolt.
Cairo tried last year to end the Syrian crisis through coordination with Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia, but it failed to gain traction from the start as the Saudis did not attend the negotiations.
Late last month, Egypt's president, Mohamed Mursi,
sent two senior aides to Shi'ite Islamist Iran - Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad's main regional ally - for talks on a peaceful solution
to the civil war. Mursi said in December that the Assad administration
had no place in Syria's future.
Turkey condemns Israeli air strikes in Syria
Reuters - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan condemned on Tuesday Israeli air strikes on targets near Damascus, saying they were an opportunity for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government to cover up its own killings.
"The air strike Israel carried out on Damascus is completely unacceptable. There is no rationale, no pretext that can excuse this operation," Erdogan told a parliamentary meeting of his ruling party.Erdogan was referring to a Syrian coastal town where anti-Assad activists said at least 62 people were killed by government fighters over the weekend.
"These attacks are chances, opportunities offered on a golden tray to Assad and to the illegitimate Syrian regime. Using the Israel attack as an excuse, he is trying to cover up the genocide in Banias," he said.
Israeli officials said the air strikes on Friday and Sunday were not intended to influence its neighbor's civil war but only at stopping Iranian missiles from reaching Lebanese Hezbollah militants for possible use against the Jewish state.
Iran's U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee complained to the United Nations about the air strikes, describing them as "provocative and unwarranted attacks."
"Nothing can justify the use of force and act of aggression against a sovereign state and the aggressor must be held accountable for any consequences stemming from this condemnable and illegitimate act which endangers regional and international peace and security," Khazaee wrote.Residents and opposition sources said the Israeli warplanes struck elite Syrian troops in the valley of the Barada River that flows through Damascus and on Qasioun Mountain overlooking the capital. They said targets included air defenses, Republican Guards and a compound linked to chemical weapons.
Lebanon, which borders both Israel and Syria, has also condemned the air strikes and called on the U.N. Security Council to condemn violations of its air space by Israel.
UN complains to Israel about violations of Lebanese airspace
Reuters - The U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon has protested to Israel after it observed increased violations of Lebanese air space by Israel, which carried out raids in Syria to target what it said were Iranian missiles bound for Hezbollah militants.
Intelligence sources said Israel on Friday and Sunday attacked Iranian-supplied missiles stored near the Syrian capital of Damascus, awaiting transport to Hezbollah, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
"UNIFIL (the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon) says that in the course of the past week it has observed a higher number of Israeli air violations over Lebanese air space," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters on Tuesday.Lebanon, in a letter obtained by Reuters on Monday, also called on the U.N. Security Council to "compel Israel to halt its violations of Lebanon's sovereignty by air, sea and land, and carry out all its obligations in accordance with Resolution 1701."
"The U.N. Interim Force has lodged firm protests with the Israeli Defence Force on this matter asking them to cease the over flights," Nesirky said.
U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 halted the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war in southern Lebanon, which remains a stronghold of Hezbollah militants. Lebanon regularly accuses Israel of violating its airspace.
Turkey and Iran have also condemned the Israeli strikes on Syria.
Syria is engulfed in a two-year civil war, which began as peaceful protests against Assad that turned violent when his forces tried to crush the revolt. The United Nations says more than 70,000 people have been killed.
Israel is reluctant to take sides in Syria's two-year-old civil war for fear its actions would boost Islamists who are even more hostile to it than the Assad family, which has maintained a stable standoff with the Jewish state for decades.
