Israeli jets bombed Syria yesterday, rocking Damascus for hours and sending pillars of flame into the night sky in what a Western source called a new strike on Iranian missiles bound for Lebanon’s Hizbollah.
Netanyahu seeks to block land, sea and air transport from Iran
Local people reported massive explosions and internet video showed the capital’s skyline lit by flashes; Syrian opponents of President Bashar al-Assad rejoiced at Israel’s third raid this year, and second in 48 hours, while anger in Tehran highlighted how Syria’s civil war risks spinning further beyond its borders.
Israel, while declining to confirm the strike, stressed its focus was to deny its Lebanese foes new Iranian firepower and not take sides between Assad, long seen as a toothless adversary, and rebels who have won sympathy from Israel’s Western allies but who also include al Qaeda Islamists hostile to the Jewish state.
It appears to calculate that Assad will not risk forces he needs to fight the rebels by attacking a much stronger Israel.
Syrian state TV said the bombing around a military research facility at Jamraya caused “many civilian casualties and widespread damage” and quoted a letter from the foreign minister to the UN saying: “The blatant Israeli aggression has the aim to provide direct military support to the terrorist groups after they failed to control territory.”
People living near the Jamraya base spoke of explosions over several hours in various places near Damascus, including a town housing senior officials: “Night turned into day,” one man said from his home near Jamraya,.
CNN quoted Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mekdad calling yesterday’s attack a “declaration of war”, and the Iranian foreign minister urged countries to resist Israel. But a senior Iranian commander also said Syria was strong enough to defend itself without Tehran’s help – though he also offered training.
A confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel hoped that by not confirming its attack, it would not force its enemies into serious retaliation. There was little response from Hizbollah, Syria or Iran to an earlier attack on the Jamraya compound, near the Lebanese border, on January 30.
After an Israeli strike on Friday, US President Barack Obama defended Israel’s right to defend itself from Hizbollah, which fired many rockets into Israel during a war in 2006.
A Western intelligence source said: “In last night’s attack, as in the previous one, what was attacked were stores of Fateh-110 missiles that were in transit from Iran to Hizbollah.”
Hizbollah in Lebanon declined immediate comment. Iran denied that the attack was on armaments bound for Lebanon.
Israel has long sought to block Hizbollah’s land, sea and air transport from Iran and frets such new missiles could give the Shi’ite militants, who share in Lebanon’s government, the ability to strike its Tel Aviv conurbation with some accuracy.
Netanyahu’s colleague, Tzachi Hanegbi, noted Obama’s reluctant to heed calls for US military backing for the rebels despite Assad’s forces alleged use of poison gas.
Given the confusion among world powers, he added, Israel was only trying to protect its own interests and saw little to be gained by trying to influence the outcome of Syria’s civil war.
“The world is helplessly looking at events in Syria,” he told Army Radio. “That is why, as in the past, we are left with our own interests, protecting them with determination – and without getting too involved.”
It was unclear whether Israel sought US approval for the action; in the past, officials have indicated that Israel sees a need only to inform Washington once such a mission is under way.
Netanyahu and Obama have had a fraught relationship in past years, as Washington seeks to hold Israel back from any attack on Iran’s nuclear programme while diplomatic moves continue.