Syrian Air Defenses Respond To Israeli Aggression
Various | 06.09.2007 23:45 | Anti-militarism | World
Since the Mossad has set up posts along the Syrian border, and the IDF has been prepping for an invasion, this should be taken very seriously.
Was the ammunition dropped for use by Mossad-backed infiltrators?
Was the ammunition dropped for use by Mossad-backed infiltrators?
Syria claims Israeli aircraft forced to flee
Last Updated: Thursday, September 6, 2007 | 9:16 AM ET
CBC News
The Syrian military said on Thursday its air defences fired on Israeli aircraft that violated its airspace, forcing the planes to flee.
The Israeli aircraft broke the sound barrier and "dropped ammunition" over deserted areas of northern Syria overnight, the spokesman was quoted by the official Syrian Arab News Agency.
"We warn the Israeli enemy government against this flagrant aggressive act, and retain the right to respond in an appropriate way," the Syrian spokesman said.
The two countries technically remain at war since the Six-Day War in 1967, during which Israeli forces seized the Golan Heights from Syria.
It was not clear if Syria was accusing the Israelis of using warplanes or some type of other aircraft such as drones.
"The Israeli enemy aircraft infiltrated into the Arab Syrian territory through the northern border, coming from the Mediterranean heading toward the eastern region, breaking the sound barrier," the spokesman said.
"Air defence units confronted them and forced them to leave after they dropped some ammunition in deserted areas without causing any human or material damage."
Israel's army said it was looking into the report.
Israel acknowledges flying over Lebanon routinely, but it is unclear how often its aircraft fly over Syria.
Israel and Syria have accused each other of preparing for war amid months of cross-border tension and troop escalation near the Golan Heights.
Last June, Israeli warplanes flew over Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's palace in the country's northwest in what the Israeli military said was an attempt to pressure Syria into expelling a top Hamas official from Damascus.
www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/09/06/israel-syria.html
Note that whenever Israel makes a claim, whether supported or not, the media repeats it with little question, yet when an Arab state says something, and tries to provide evidence, the media calls their statements "claims" or says the state "accuses" them of something.
Syria accuses Israel of bombing its territory
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria accused Israel of bombing its territory on Thursday and said it could respond to the Jewish state's "aggression and treachery."
Israel declined to comment on the charge by Syria, which said no casualties or damage were caused. The Syrian accusation was partly responsible for triggering a rise in world oil prices of more than $1.40 a barrel.
"It appears that the Israeli planes were on a reconnaissance mission when they got caught by Syrian defenses and were forced to drop their bombs and extra fuel tanks," said a Western diplomat in Syria's capital Damascus. He declined to be named.
After months in which talk of reviving long-stalled peace negotiations between neighboring Israel and Syria has been mixed with speculation on both sides that the other was preparing a surprise attack, Syrian officials hit out.
"This shows that Israel cannot give up aggression and treachery," Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal told Al Jazeera television.
Another Syrian official said: "They dropped bombs on an empty area while our air defenses were firing heavily at them." The official news agency SANA said Syria "reserves the right to respond according to what it sees fit."
The Israeli military spokesman's office said in a statement: "It is not our custom to respond to these kinds of reports."
The office has typically commented on such charges, but a security source said the government had imposed a news blackout on the issue. A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said there would be no comment beyond the military statement.
In Washington, the White House declined to comment.
It is more than a year since Syrian guns opened fire on Israeli aircraft and Israeli jets last struck in 2003 across a border that remains tense but largely quiet 34 years after the last war between the two neighbors ended in an edgy ceasefire.
RECONNAISSANCE FLIGHTS
Military analysts said Israel has conducted reconnaissance flights over Syria to probe its defenses.
Witnesses said several planes crossed deep into Syrian territory and flew over the oil centre of Deir al Zor on the Euphrates river.
Residents in the Tal al-Abiad area on Syria's border with Turkey said they spotted several fuel tanks.
Turkish and Israeli officials denied a report from an Israeli military source that the Israeli air force had trained in Turkey as recently as this week. The last exercises concluded last month, officials in Ankara said.
Tensions between Israel and Syria have been high in the past few months.
Some Israeli intelligence officials have suggested Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government might be ready to try to take by force parts of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the war of 1967 and held on to in fighting in 1973.
Syrian officials have said Syria was seeking peaceful means to liberate the territory, although some have also suggested force remained an option if diplomacy failed.
Some Israeli military officials have expressed alarm at what they say are reinforcements of Syrian posts and arms purchases.
But Olmert, who launched his forces against Syrian-allied Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon a year ago, has been at pains to say he has no hostile intentions toward Damascus.
He has also said he would like to reopen peace negotiations that have been stalled for seven years. Syrian officials too have said they would like peace. But there has been little sign of any concrete steps towards rapprochement.
Syria last said it fired at Israeli warplanes in June 2006, when Israeli aircraft buzzed a Syrian presidential palace.
Israeli officials said at the time the Jewish state was pressing a message to Syria to cease support for Hamas after the Palestinian militant group abducted an Israeli soldier.
Israel has long warned Syria to stop supporting militant Palestinian groups and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement.
Israeli jets bombed an empty Palestinian militant training camp in Syria in October 2003.
(Additional reporting by Jeffrey Heller, Dan Williams and Alastair Macdonald in Jerusalem)
news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070906/ts_nm/syria_israel_dc;_ylt=Aqu3ifww6Wrm.nVVKG0LIjms0NUE
Syrian minister: 'Israel can't survive without aggression'
By AP, YAAKOV KATZ AND JPOST.COM STAFF
"Israel in fact does not want peace. It cannot survive without aggression, treachery and military messages," Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said Thursday, a day after IAF aircraft allegedly violated Syrian airspace in an overnight operation.
Bilal said the government was "seriously studying the nature of the response," but refused to indicate in an interview with Al-Jazeera whether the reaction would be on the military or diplomatic level. He would not give any more details about the incident, but said it proved Israel's policies are based on hostility.
He said recent US aid of $30 billion over 10 years to Israel encouraged its government to "such arrogance that it delivered this morning message."
Syrian officials reported that four or five IAF aircraft broke the sound barrier and dropped fuel tanks over deserted areas of northern Syria, along its border with Turkey. Witnesses said the incident occurred in the Abyad area.
A Syrian military spokesman said that Syrian air defenses opened fire on the IAF aircraft. "The Israeli enemy aircraft infiltrated into the Arab Syrian territory through the northern border, coming from the Mediterranean heading toward the eastern region, breaking the sound barrier," the spokesman said.
"Air defense units confronted them and forced them to leave," he added. "We warn the Israeli enemy government against this flagrant aggressive act, and retain the right to respond in an appropriate way."
It was not clear if Syria was accusing the Israelis of using warplanes.
The IDF said that it was "not accustomed to responding to such reports."
Syrian Cabinet Minister Buthaina Shaaban, speaking on Al-Jazeera television's English service, would not confirm that Israel had attacked Syria, but did say the aircraft violated the country's airspace.
"We are a sovereign country. They cannot do that," said Shaaban.
The Syrian military spokesman did not specify whether the military used surface-to-air missiles or anti-aircraft artillery when confronting the aircraft.
"We warn the Israeli enemy government against this flagrant aggressive act, and retain the right to respond in an appropriate way," the Syrian spokesman said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.
Counterterrorism expert Boaz Ganor said that if Thursday's overflight occurred, it's possible Israel was "collecting intelligence on long-range missiles" deployed by Syria in the north.
Imad Fawzi Shoaibi, a Syrian political analyst, speculated that Israel may have been probing Syria's new air defense systems provided by Russia, at a time when tension is running high between the two countries.
Israel acknowledges flying over Lebanon routinely, but it is unclear how often its aircraft fly over Syria, if at all.
Syrian officials, including President Bashar Assad, have repeatedly warned Israel in recent weeks that the occupation of the Golan Heights "cannot last forever."
Concerns grew over the summer that tensions along the frontier could escalate into conflict, but both Syrian and Israeli officials publicly and repeatedly said they had no interest in war.
Thursday's incident could stoke the tensions again, however. Late last month, Israeli security officials said the army had determined that war with Syria, whose military had reduced its war readiness, was unlikely and Israel began rotating forces out of the Israeli-held Golan Heights.
Syria also is believed unhappy that other Arab countries are headed to a peace meeting in November at which the United States hopes for a high-profile meeting between the Palestinians and Israelis, and perhaps also with Saudi officials.
Syria has long disputed any notion that a comprehensive Arab peace deal can be reached unless it also involves some resolution of the Golan Heights, which it wants back in full.
At the beginning of last summer's war against Lebanon, Israeli warplanes buzzed the palace of Syrian President Bashar Assad in what analysts called a warning to Damascus.
In June of the same year, they also flew over Assad's summer home in the coastal city of Latakia, after (allegedly) Syrian-backed Palestinian combatants in Gaza kidnapped IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Schalit.
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1188392553869&pagename=JPost/JPArtic
Sources: IDF objects to Gaza op because of tensions with Syria
By Amos Harel and Barak Ravid , Haaretz Correspondents
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday that the Israel Defense Forces was moving closer to an extensive ground action in the Gaza Strip, "in order to halt the rocket fire and the strengthening [of militant organizations]", Barak told his senior staff and the heads of the military industries. The statement came a few hours after the security cabinet decided not to significantly alter the IDF's actions in the Gaza Strip.
The cabinet also decided to examine the legal implications of imposing sanctions on the civilian population of the Gaza Strip in response to Qassam fire, such as disrupting the supply of electricity.
However, no troop buildup or other preparations are being made in the Southern Command for immediate action. Senior military sources told Haaretz that as long as the tension is high along the Syrian border, IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi objects to large-scale action in Gaza because of the difficulty of operating on two fronts without massive drafting of the reserves. The sources said Israel's position might change if a large number of casualties resulted from the Qassam fire.
At the end of the cabinet meeting, Prime MInister Ehud Olmert said the IDF should "reduce the Qassam fire as much as possible," and should submit plans to the government on how this was to be accomplished.
"The cabinet has decided to continue intense military action against those involved in terror and launching of rockets, and none of those responsible for a partners to terror is immune to this action," the prime minister's bureau said.
Barak told the cabinet that lacking a defense system, he recommended pinpointed action: "The solution is offensive actions deep in the territory based on intelligence."
In discussing the possibility of sanctions against Gaza's civilian population, Minister without Portfolio Yitzhak Cohen (Shas) said the Palestinians should be shown that "there is a price tag for every rocket." Vice Premier Haim Ramon (Kadima) reiterated that electricity to Gaza should be interrupted after every rocket.
At the end of the meeting, Olmert asked the defense establishment, the Foreign Ministry and Justice Ministry officials to prepare plans that would take into consideration the "military and civilian implications of stoping services provided to the Gaza Strip by Israel."
A statement following the meeting also said "the Israeli government views Hamas as responsible for the firing of the Qassams and the terror activity in the Gaza Strip. This murderous terror organization purports to lead daily life in Gaza while life in the communities around Gaza is insufferable."
The cabinet also decided to continue reinforcement work in Sderot with the installation Friday of 15 more mobile reinforced rooms in public areas in Sderot, in which people could take shelter in case of a rocket attack.
IDF troops from the Golani Brigade, the Armored Corps and the Engineering Corps ended a two-day sweep Wednesday night of the industrial zone of Beit Hanun over the past two days, in an attempt to locate Qassam launchers. Troops found 11 launchers Wednesday.
At least three Qassams were fired Wednesday from the Gaza, landing in open areas without causing injuries or damage. One rocket fell in the area of Zikim south of Ashkelon, and two more fell on the southern border of the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, in the West Bank, one paratrooper was moderately injured and two others slightly injured when an explosive device was set off near their vehicle in Nablus. Troops uncovered and destroyed an explosives lab in Nablus.
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/901170.html
What this really means is that Israel cannot start a war with Syria (and perhaps Iran) and Lebanon, and take on Gaza at the same time without a mandatory Draft. This adds a twist to Israel's claim that they are considering cutting off Gaza's water supply.
Last Updated: Thursday, September 6, 2007 | 9:16 AM ET
CBC News
The Syrian military said on Thursday its air defences fired on Israeli aircraft that violated its airspace, forcing the planes to flee.
The Israeli aircraft broke the sound barrier and "dropped ammunition" over deserted areas of northern Syria overnight, the spokesman was quoted by the official Syrian Arab News Agency.
"We warn the Israeli enemy government against this flagrant aggressive act, and retain the right to respond in an appropriate way," the Syrian spokesman said.
The two countries technically remain at war since the Six-Day War in 1967, during which Israeli forces seized the Golan Heights from Syria.
It was not clear if Syria was accusing the Israelis of using warplanes or some type of other aircraft such as drones.
"The Israeli enemy aircraft infiltrated into the Arab Syrian territory through the northern border, coming from the Mediterranean heading toward the eastern region, breaking the sound barrier," the spokesman said.
"Air defence units confronted them and forced them to leave after they dropped some ammunition in deserted areas without causing any human or material damage."
Israel's army said it was looking into the report.
Israel acknowledges flying over Lebanon routinely, but it is unclear how often its aircraft fly over Syria.
Israel and Syria have accused each other of preparing for war amid months of cross-border tension and troop escalation near the Golan Heights.
Last June, Israeli warplanes flew over Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's palace in the country's northwest in what the Israeli military said was an attempt to pressure Syria into expelling a top Hamas official from Damascus.
www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/09/06/israel-syria.html
Note that whenever Israel makes a claim, whether supported or not, the media repeats it with little question, yet when an Arab state says something, and tries to provide evidence, the media calls their statements "claims" or says the state "accuses" them of something.
Syria accuses Israel of bombing its territory
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria accused Israel of bombing its territory on Thursday and said it could respond to the Jewish state's "aggression and treachery."
Israel declined to comment on the charge by Syria, which said no casualties or damage were caused. The Syrian accusation was partly responsible for triggering a rise in world oil prices of more than $1.40 a barrel.
"It appears that the Israeli planes were on a reconnaissance mission when they got caught by Syrian defenses and were forced to drop their bombs and extra fuel tanks," said a Western diplomat in Syria's capital Damascus. He declined to be named.
After months in which talk of reviving long-stalled peace negotiations between neighboring Israel and Syria has been mixed with speculation on both sides that the other was preparing a surprise attack, Syrian officials hit out.
"This shows that Israel cannot give up aggression and treachery," Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal told Al Jazeera television.
Another Syrian official said: "They dropped bombs on an empty area while our air defenses were firing heavily at them." The official news agency SANA said Syria "reserves the right to respond according to what it sees fit."
The Israeli military spokesman's office said in a statement: "It is not our custom to respond to these kinds of reports."
The office has typically commented on such charges, but a security source said the government had imposed a news blackout on the issue. A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said there would be no comment beyond the military statement.
In Washington, the White House declined to comment.
It is more than a year since Syrian guns opened fire on Israeli aircraft and Israeli jets last struck in 2003 across a border that remains tense but largely quiet 34 years after the last war between the two neighbors ended in an edgy ceasefire.
RECONNAISSANCE FLIGHTS
Military analysts said Israel has conducted reconnaissance flights over Syria to probe its defenses.
Witnesses said several planes crossed deep into Syrian territory and flew over the oil centre of Deir al Zor on the Euphrates river.
Residents in the Tal al-Abiad area on Syria's border with Turkey said they spotted several fuel tanks.
Turkish and Israeli officials denied a report from an Israeli military source that the Israeli air force had trained in Turkey as recently as this week. The last exercises concluded last month, officials in Ankara said.
Tensions between Israel and Syria have been high in the past few months.
Some Israeli intelligence officials have suggested Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government might be ready to try to take by force parts of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the war of 1967 and held on to in fighting in 1973.
Syrian officials have said Syria was seeking peaceful means to liberate the territory, although some have also suggested force remained an option if diplomacy failed.
Some Israeli military officials have expressed alarm at what they say are reinforcements of Syrian posts and arms purchases.
But Olmert, who launched his forces against Syrian-allied Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon a year ago, has been at pains to say he has no hostile intentions toward Damascus.
He has also said he would like to reopen peace negotiations that have been stalled for seven years. Syrian officials too have said they would like peace. But there has been little sign of any concrete steps towards rapprochement.
Syria last said it fired at Israeli warplanes in June 2006, when Israeli aircraft buzzed a Syrian presidential palace.
Israeli officials said at the time the Jewish state was pressing a message to Syria to cease support for Hamas after the Palestinian militant group abducted an Israeli soldier.
Israel has long warned Syria to stop supporting militant Palestinian groups and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement.
Israeli jets bombed an empty Palestinian militant training camp in Syria in October 2003.
(Additional reporting by Jeffrey Heller, Dan Williams and Alastair Macdonald in Jerusalem)
news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070906/ts_nm/syria_israel_dc;_ylt=Aqu3ifww6Wrm.nVVKG0LIjms0NUE
Syrian minister: 'Israel can't survive without aggression'
By AP, YAAKOV KATZ AND JPOST.COM STAFF
"Israel in fact does not want peace. It cannot survive without aggression, treachery and military messages," Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said Thursday, a day after IAF aircraft allegedly violated Syrian airspace in an overnight operation.
Bilal said the government was "seriously studying the nature of the response," but refused to indicate in an interview with Al-Jazeera whether the reaction would be on the military or diplomatic level. He would not give any more details about the incident, but said it proved Israel's policies are based on hostility.
He said recent US aid of $30 billion over 10 years to Israel encouraged its government to "such arrogance that it delivered this morning message."
Syrian officials reported that four or five IAF aircraft broke the sound barrier and dropped fuel tanks over deserted areas of northern Syria, along its border with Turkey. Witnesses said the incident occurred in the Abyad area.
A Syrian military spokesman said that Syrian air defenses opened fire on the IAF aircraft. "The Israeli enemy aircraft infiltrated into the Arab Syrian territory through the northern border, coming from the Mediterranean heading toward the eastern region, breaking the sound barrier," the spokesman said.
"Air defense units confronted them and forced them to leave," he added. "We warn the Israeli enemy government against this flagrant aggressive act, and retain the right to respond in an appropriate way."
It was not clear if Syria was accusing the Israelis of using warplanes.
The IDF said that it was "not accustomed to responding to such reports."
Syrian Cabinet Minister Buthaina Shaaban, speaking on Al-Jazeera television's English service, would not confirm that Israel had attacked Syria, but did say the aircraft violated the country's airspace.
"We are a sovereign country. They cannot do that," said Shaaban.
The Syrian military spokesman did not specify whether the military used surface-to-air missiles or anti-aircraft artillery when confronting the aircraft.
"We warn the Israeli enemy government against this flagrant aggressive act, and retain the right to respond in an appropriate way," the Syrian spokesman said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.
Counterterrorism expert Boaz Ganor said that if Thursday's overflight occurred, it's possible Israel was "collecting intelligence on long-range missiles" deployed by Syria in the north.
Imad Fawzi Shoaibi, a Syrian political analyst, speculated that Israel may have been probing Syria's new air defense systems provided by Russia, at a time when tension is running high between the two countries.
Israel acknowledges flying over Lebanon routinely, but it is unclear how often its aircraft fly over Syria, if at all.
Syrian officials, including President Bashar Assad, have repeatedly warned Israel in recent weeks that the occupation of the Golan Heights "cannot last forever."
Concerns grew over the summer that tensions along the frontier could escalate into conflict, but both Syrian and Israeli officials publicly and repeatedly said they had no interest in war.
Thursday's incident could stoke the tensions again, however. Late last month, Israeli security officials said the army had determined that war with Syria, whose military had reduced its war readiness, was unlikely and Israel began rotating forces out of the Israeli-held Golan Heights.
Syria also is believed unhappy that other Arab countries are headed to a peace meeting in November at which the United States hopes for a high-profile meeting between the Palestinians and Israelis, and perhaps also with Saudi officials.
Syria has long disputed any notion that a comprehensive Arab peace deal can be reached unless it also involves some resolution of the Golan Heights, which it wants back in full.
At the beginning of last summer's war against Lebanon, Israeli warplanes buzzed the palace of Syrian President Bashar Assad in what analysts called a warning to Damascus.
In June of the same year, they also flew over Assad's summer home in the coastal city of Latakia, after (allegedly) Syrian-backed Palestinian combatants in Gaza kidnapped IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Schalit.
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1188392553869&pagename=JPost/JPArtic
Sources: IDF objects to Gaza op because of tensions with Syria
By Amos Harel and Barak Ravid , Haaretz Correspondents
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday that the Israel Defense Forces was moving closer to an extensive ground action in the Gaza Strip, "in order to halt the rocket fire and the strengthening [of militant organizations]", Barak told his senior staff and the heads of the military industries. The statement came a few hours after the security cabinet decided not to significantly alter the IDF's actions in the Gaza Strip.
The cabinet also decided to examine the legal implications of imposing sanctions on the civilian population of the Gaza Strip in response to Qassam fire, such as disrupting the supply of electricity.
However, no troop buildup or other preparations are being made in the Southern Command for immediate action. Senior military sources told Haaretz that as long as the tension is high along the Syrian border, IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi objects to large-scale action in Gaza because of the difficulty of operating on two fronts without massive drafting of the reserves. The sources said Israel's position might change if a large number of casualties resulted from the Qassam fire.
At the end of the cabinet meeting, Prime MInister Ehud Olmert said the IDF should "reduce the Qassam fire as much as possible," and should submit plans to the government on how this was to be accomplished.
"The cabinet has decided to continue intense military action against those involved in terror and launching of rockets, and none of those responsible for a partners to terror is immune to this action," the prime minister's bureau said.
Barak told the cabinet that lacking a defense system, he recommended pinpointed action: "The solution is offensive actions deep in the territory based on intelligence."
In discussing the possibility of sanctions against Gaza's civilian population, Minister without Portfolio Yitzhak Cohen (Shas) said the Palestinians should be shown that "there is a price tag for every rocket." Vice Premier Haim Ramon (Kadima) reiterated that electricity to Gaza should be interrupted after every rocket.
At the end of the meeting, Olmert asked the defense establishment, the Foreign Ministry and Justice Ministry officials to prepare plans that would take into consideration the "military and civilian implications of stoping services provided to the Gaza Strip by Israel."
A statement following the meeting also said "the Israeli government views Hamas as responsible for the firing of the Qassams and the terror activity in the Gaza Strip. This murderous terror organization purports to lead daily life in Gaza while life in the communities around Gaza is insufferable."
The cabinet also decided to continue reinforcement work in Sderot with the installation Friday of 15 more mobile reinforced rooms in public areas in Sderot, in which people could take shelter in case of a rocket attack.
IDF troops from the Golani Brigade, the Armored Corps and the Engineering Corps ended a two-day sweep Wednesday night of the industrial zone of Beit Hanun over the past two days, in an attempt to locate Qassam launchers. Troops found 11 launchers Wednesday.
At least three Qassams were fired Wednesday from the Gaza, landing in open areas without causing injuries or damage. One rocket fell in the area of Zikim south of Ashkelon, and two more fell on the southern border of the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, in the West Bank, one paratrooper was moderately injured and two others slightly injured when an explosive device was set off near their vehicle in Nablus. Troops uncovered and destroyed an explosives lab in Nablus.
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/901170.html
What this really means is that Israel cannot start a war with Syria (and perhaps Iran) and Lebanon, and take on Gaza at the same time without a mandatory Draft. This adds a twist to Israel's claim that they are considering cutting off Gaza's water supply.
Various