WarSclerotic

U.S. officials say alleged Israeli strike on Syria targeted missiles from Iran, NYT reports – Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper.

The surface-to-surface Fateh-110 missiles were being stored at a Damascus airport and believed to be intended for Lebanon’s Hezbollah, report says.

A third generation of Fateh 110 (Conqueror) surface-to-surface missile being launched during a test from an unknown location in Iran. Photo by Reuters

American officials say the alleged Israeli strike on Syria targeted Iranian missiles that Israel thought were headed for Hezbollah, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

A batch of surface-to-surface Fateh-110 missiles were being stored at a Damascus airport when they were struck in the attack, a U.S. official told the newspaper.

The Fateh-110 is a medium-range missile capable of hitting targets at a range of up to 300 kilometers.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, one official told the New York Times that the warehouse where the missiles were stored, which was hit in the attack, was most likely controlled by Hezbollah and the Iranian paramilitary Quds Force.

On Saturday morning, anonymous officials told the Associated Press that the Israeli Air Force carried out a strike against Syria that targeted a shipment of advanced missiles bound for the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group. They said the airstrike was early Friday, but did not say where it took place.

Later Saturday, Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad denied the reports. Gilad, who heads the diplomatic security bureau of the Defense Ministry, said that the words of sources who speak under conditions of anonymity cannot be regarded as Israel’s official confirmation, according to an Army Radio report.

According to a Syrian opposition website, a senior source in the Syrian Ministry of Transport claims that the target of the alleged Israeli attack was an airport, where aircraft fuel tanks, Syrian army ammunition storerooms, the army’s runway and a civilian cargo plane that had arrived from Iran to Damascus were destroyed.

Attacking from Lebanese airspace

The attack was carried out from Lebanese airspace, U.S. officials told CNN on Saturday. Israel’s previous airstrike in Syria (against a convoy supposedly carrying SA-17 anti-aircraft weapons) some three months ago was not carried out over Syrian airspace either, for fear of anti-aircraft fire, the Wall Street Journal reported last week.

In late January, an Israeli airstrike targeted a suspected SA-17 anti-aircraft missile shipment intended for Hezbollah, the Wall Street Journal reported. Israel has not confirmed the January attack officially.

Citing Pentagon officials, the newspaper said the Israeli warplanes never entered Syria’s airspace but carried out the strike from the “relative safety” of Lebanon’s airspace.

The attack was executed “in a ‘lofting’ maneuver, using a sudden burst of speed and altitude to catapult a bomb across the border to the target about 10 miles inside Syria,” Wall Street Journal said, citing a previously undisclosed U.S. account of the operation.

It also cited Israeli officials who said it was decided to strike from Lebanon not only for the relative safety of its airspace for example, the absence of anti-aircraft missiles but for diplomatic reasons as well.

In recent years defense sources have expressed fears of losing Israel’s aerial supremacy. The defense establishment said that giving advanced anti-aircraft weapons to terror organizations constituted a red line, as far as Israel was concerned. The sources said Syria has an advanced antiaircraft system, including SA-22 antiaircraft missiles and other weapons bought from Russia.

Former air force commander, Brig. Gen. Ido Nechushtan said about a year ago the advanced weapons in the Middle East constitute a challenge to Israel’s aerial supremacy.

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