Ukraine in Arabic | Israeli jets hit targets near Syrian capital
KYIV/Ukraine in Arabic/ The Syrian military has accused Israel of carrying out two air strikes on Syria, near the capital Damascus.
Israeli planes bombed the area near Damascus international airport and the town of Dimas, the Syrian army said in a statement carried on state television.
No casualties were reported. There has been no confirmation of the air strikes from Israel.
Israel has conducted several air strikes on Syria since 2011.
Israeli officials refused to confirm or deny the latest reports from Syria, maintaining a policy of ambiguity that is meant to allow the other side to save face and to stave off retaliation.
But in remarks before the weekly cabinet meeting earlier Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel pledged to continue to deal with regional threats, which some Israeli analysts read with hindsight as a hint of what was to come hours later.
“We are closely monitoring the Middle East and what is happening with open eyes and ears, and a lot is happening,” he said. “We will stay informed and we will deal with these threats and challenges, which are not taking a timeout. We will deal with them with the same responsibility that we have up until now.”
The Syrian Army’s statement, which was carried by Syria’s state news media, said Israel had struck the area of Dimas, known to contain military bases and research centers, and the area of Damascus International Airport, damaging some facilities. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The army said the
The army accused Israel of “aggression” but did not explicitly threaten retaliation.
In remarks to the annual Saban Forum in Washington later Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu said violence and fanaticism were spreading throughout the Middle East, adding, “ISIS’ savagery is merely one example of it.”
Israel has repeatedly said it has no intention of intervening in the war between the government of President Bashar al-Assad and rebel forces in Syria. But Israel has vowed to prevent any transfer of advanced missiles or chemical weapons from Syria to Hezbollah, a militant Shiite group in Lebanon that fought a monthlong war with Israel in 2006.
Israel carried out at least five strikes in Syrian territory in 2013, hitting storehouses and convoys of antiaircraft, surface-to-surface and shore-to-ship missiles, American officials have said. This past February, Hezbollah, which is fighting in Syria on Mr. Assad’s side, accused Israel of striking one of its positions on the Lebanese side of the border. Israel has since blamed Hezbollah for detonating at least two bombs against Israeli forces along the Israel-Lebanon border.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the Syrian war from Britain, reported at least 10 blasts on Sunday and said one target was a warehouse near Damascus International Airport. An activist with the Syrian opposition on the Syrian-controlled side of the Golan Heights, reached via Skype, said he heard about 10 reconnaissance planes overhead on Sunday afternoon.
Some Israeli opposition politicians critical of Mr. Netanyahu questioned whether the timing of the strikes in Syria had anything to do with the elections Mr. Netanyahu has called for March. But Israeli security experts said that a military operation of this scale would have been in the planning well before the collapse of Israel’s government last week.
“I expect and believe that this government separates between daily affairs and security affairs,” said Nachman Shai, a legislator from the center-left Labor Party, which also sits in opposition, and a former spokesman for the Israeli military. “This is a sensitive time, but wherever and whenever a genuine threat exists against Israel, it is right for the government to act, and we will support it,” he told.