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Israel admits air attack on Syria
Al
Jazeera.net
Wednesday October 03, 2007
Israel has confirmed that its air force carried out an air raid inside
Syrian territory in September - after remaining silent on the issue for
nearly a month.
Israel said on Tuesday that its warplanes had conducted the attack deep
inside Syrian territory on September 6, saying it attacked a "military
target".
Israeli radio reported: "The military censor has authorised for the
first time the publication of the fact that Israeli combat planes attacked
a military target deep inside Syrian territory on September 6."
Until now, Israel has refused to confirm or deny that any air attack had
taken place, though the incident was publicly confirmed by Syrian and
Western officials.
David Chater, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Jerusalem, said: "The
[Israeli] military censors had no other option but to admit the attack
took place because the Syrian president yesterday went on record to say
the Israelis had indeed attacked a target in northern Syria - what he
described as an unused military base."
"No other details about the scale of the mission, the intent or what
intelligence it was based on have been released," he said.
Israeli military censors continue to withhold details, but Damascus says
at least four Israeli warplanes crossed into Syria in the incident.
Syria says its air defence systems confronted Israeli aircraft, which
subsequently bombed an area inside the country.
Media speculation
With the Israeli blackout on information in place, most of the speculation
on the raid has come from foreign media.
Some US officials have linked the raid to suspicions of secret nuclear
co-operation between Damascus and North Korea.
A North Korean ship was reported as docking in Syria a few days before
the attack happened.
"Press speculation - in the foreign press, not in the Israeli press
- has said perhaps there was nuclear technology imported from North Korea,"
Chater said.
"This kind of speculation is bound to increase now."
Both Damascus and North Korea have denied any nuclear ties, with Syria
accusing Israel of spreading what it describes as false reports as an
excuse for war.
Faruq al-Shara, the Syrian vice-president, said on Saturday that the raid
was meant to provide justification for future aggression against his country.
"Those who continue to talk about this raid and to invent inaccurate
details are aiming to justify a future aggression [against Syria],"
he said at a press conference.
Some earlier reports had suggested that the raid may have targeted Iranian
arms bound for Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Syria has filed a formal complaint with the UN over the air raid, which
has raised tensions between the two countries which are still formally
at war.
Peace talks between the two powers collapsed in 2000 over the scope of
an Israeli pull-out from the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from
Syria in 1967.
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