Israeli airstrikes reported in Syria
JERUSALEM — Israeli warplanes struck military targets in Syria early Saturday, according to news reports, hitting several bases belonging to Syrian missile brigades in the mountainous Qalamoun region near the border with Lebanon.
The targets were Syrian army brigades said to have long-range missiles and other strategic weaponry, according to Arab news media and pro-opposition sources in Syria. The strikes were not confirmed by Israeli or Syrian government officials.
Syrian pro-opposition sources posted a video on YouTube showing columns of smoke rising from what was said to be a Syrian army brigade base, one of many military installations in the Qalamoun area.
SANA, Syria’s official news agency, did not acknowledge the attack, but several pro-government news outlets reported explosions in the town of Qateyfah. It wasn’t immediately clear who was behind the strike, and the warring factions in Syria had conf licting versions of events.
Also Saturday, Al Arabiya TV news channel reported that Israeli aircraft had carried out two strikes Wednesday against Hezbollah targets in the same area; one target was reported to be a large weapons convoy headed for the Lebanonbased Shiite militia heavily engaged in fighting alongside Bashar Assad’s Syrian government against rebel forces. Unconfirmed reports said three people were killed in the attack.
Hezbollah officials, contacted by phone in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, had no comment.
The attack Saturday was the latest of at least seven strikes thought to have been carried out by Israeli forces in Syria in the last two years. Israel’s military has declined to comment.
Officially, Israel’s declared position is that it is not involved in the civil war in Syria.
However, officials have repeatedly marked “red lines” warranting action, including transfer of strategic weapons to Hezbollah or other actors in the region.
The latest strike came after Russia renewed its pledge to supply Iran with the advanced S-300 air defense system, which Israel views as strategic weaponry that could hamper its capabilities throughout the region.
The strike also followed a report in Jane’s Defense Weekly that revealed an airstrip in the northern Bekaa Valley, Hezbollah’s stronghold in Lebanon, believed to be used by the powerful militia for drone operations.
In January, an airstrike attributed to Israel killed several Hezbollah members as well as an Iranian general in an attack in the Quneitra area of the Golan Heights.
That high-profile strike was followed by an attack that killed two Israeli soldiers; a Spanish peacekeeper deployed with a United Nations force was killed when Israel responded with shelling of Lebanese territory.