Syria fires on raiding Israeli war planes
Middle East Desk Report

DAMASCUS—Syria said it opened fire on Israeli warplanes which had violated Syrian airspace at dawn on Thursday, heightening tensions between the two foes. “Enemy Israeli planes penetrated Syrian airspace from the Mediterranean Sea heading towards the northeast, breaking the sound barrier,” an army spokesman told the official SANA news agency.
“Our air defences repulsed them and forced them to leave...after the Israeli planes dropped ammunition, without causing human or material loss,” he said. “The Syrian Arab Republic warns the government of the Israeli enemy against this aggressive action and reserves the right to respond in any way it deems appropriate.” There was no immediate response from Israel.
But a Syrian government minister admitted to satellite television network Al-Jazeera that it remained unclear whether the Israeli aircraft had actually carried out an attack. “They intervened in our airspace... which they should not do — we are a soverign country and they should not come into airspace,” Expatriate Affairs Minister Bussaina Shaaban told Al-Jazeera’s English-language channel.
“We do not know yet” if the aircraft dropped anything. “The investigation is still going on on the ground,” she said. In June 2006, Israeli warplanes flew over President Bashar al-Assad’s palace in northern Syria while he was inside, an action Damascus condemned as an “act of piracy.”
Over the past few months, Israeli and Syrian leaders have both said their countries do not want a war, but were preparing for any possibility while each side has accused the other of arming for a conflict. Syria and Israel remain technically at a state of war, and peace talks broke down in 2000 over the fate of the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau captured by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed in 1981.
The last overflight by Israel in 2006 came amid high tensions in the Middle East after the Jewish state launched a massive military offensive on the Gaza Strip to try to retrieve a soldier captured by Palestinian militants. The Gaza action was followed just a few weeks later by a devastating Israeli war in Lebanon against the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah militia, after two soldiers were captured in a raid by the guerrillas.
Syria shelters a number of radical Palestinian groups, and is home to Khaled Meshaal, the exiled supremo of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) who tops Israel’s most wanted list. Last month, Israel said it was reducing its military presence on the Golan Heights and lowering its level of alert following months of increased tensions with Syria.
However, it said it will continue to conduct regular training on the plateau as part of its training following the Lebanon war against Hezbollah, which revealed major shortcomings in the army’s conduct.
And Israel continues to carry out occasional flights over neighbouring Lebanon, triggering protests from Beirut and concern from the United Nations peacekeeping force monitoring a ceasefire there.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak also said in August that “Israel does not want a war and Syria, according to our estimates, does not wish for one either.” Thursday’s action comes exactly a month to the day before the anniversary of the October 1973 war.
On October 6 of that year, Egypt and Syria launched surprise attacks on Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, to recover territory lost in the 1967 Middle East war, although they were again defeated.
Syria accused Israel of bombing its territory on Thursday and warned it could respond, but Israel Radio carried a denial there had been an air strike. The official Syrian news agency said there were no casualties or damage and that Syrian air defenses fired on the incoming planes shortly after midnight. Israel Radio, quoting an unidentified military source, said there had been no air strike on Syria. But a military spokesman told reporters: “We’re still checking.”
The Syrian news agency SANA said the aircraft “infiltrated Syrian airspace through the northern border coming from the direction of the Mediterranean and headed towards northeastern territory, breaking the sound barrier.” It added: “The Syrian Arab Republic warns the government of the Israeli enemy and reserves the right to respond according to what it sees fit.”