Syria blames Israel for explosive attack
Israeli media says warehouse near airport contained weapons bound for Hezbollah
JERUSALEM— Syrian and rebel officials blamed Israel for several explosions Thursday morning at warehouses near the Damascus airport that the Israeli news media said were housing weapons bound for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Israel, which has carried out attacks on precision missiles and other forms of advanced weaponry in the past, did not directly confirm or deny the attack, in keeping with its policy.
But Yisrael Katz, the Israeli intelli- gence minister, seemed to acknowledge his country’s involvement, saying the attack was “consistent” with Israel’s policy of not allowing Hezbollah to obtain such weaponry.
“I can confirm that the incident in Syria completely conforms to Israel’s policy, to act so as to prevent the smuggling of advanced weapons from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon by Iran,” he told Army Radio.
Yoav Galant, Israel’s construction minister, also declined to confirm the strikes but told Channel 10, “Our enemies must know: We will know to use our power to protect our interests by ourselves.”
Large explosions were heard miles from the airport that serves Damascus, the Syrian capital, and the glow of flames could be seen in the dis- tance, according to residents in the area.
Sanaa, the state-run Syrian news agency, said that Israel had carried out missile strikes on the airport, but it did not specify what had been hit.
The Lebanese news channel Al Mayadeen reported that Israeli missiles had passed over the Golan Heights, and that Israeli jets had not entered Syrian airspace.
Last month, Israel took the rare step of confirming that it had carried out several strikes in central Syria, also against what it said were efforts to transfer weapons to Hezbollah.
The Shiite group is aligned with Iran and is fighting in Syria alongside forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The Syrian government responded by firing anti-aircraft missiles at Israeli jets, but these were in turn shot down by Israel’s new anti-missile system, Arrow, which the Israeli news media said had been deployed for the first time.
Israel has carried out intermittent strikes inside Syria, fearing that Iran is helping Hezbollah build its arsenal amid the chaos of the civil war.
An explosion in May that killed Mustafa Badreddine, a senior Hezbollah commander, was also widely believed to have been carried out by Israel in the military section of the Damascus airport.
Hezbollah and Iran have military offices there for those assisting with the war in Syria.
Israel has also struck Hezbollah and Syrian military targets in south- ern Syria, in what appears to be an effort to prevent the militant group from gaining a foothold along the boundary between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Israel, which annexed the Golan Heights after seizing them from Syria in the 1967 war, a move not recognized under international law, counts Hezbollah as one of its most potent threats; it fought a monthlong war with the group across the Lebanese-Israeli border in 2006.
Both sides say they do not want another war but are prepared to fight one.
Hezbollah took reporters on a tour of the Lebanese-Israeli border this month to show Israeli fortifications that are to be used in the event of a violent conflict.