BBC, JERUSALEM POST (Israel), THE NEW YORK TIMES, VOA (U.S.), REUTERS
DAMASCUS– Russia has expressed its concern at an alleged Israeli airstrike in Syria that left four dead and two injured says the BBC. Various reports about the airstrike differ in details, while Israel remains silent about its action.
Sources told Reuters on Wednesday that Israeli warplanes had bombed a convoy near Syria’s border with Lebanon, apparently targeting weapons destined for Hezbollah, in what some called a warning to Damascus not to arm the Lebanese Islamist militant group. Syria has denied this and said that it was a research facility and not a convoy that had been struck.
“If this information is confirmed, then we are dealing with unprovoked attacks on targets on the territory of a sovereign country, which blatantly violates the UN Charter and is unacceptable, no matter the motives to justify it,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, according to Reuters.
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Assad with Medvedev. Photo: Kremlin
Russia has continually refused to denounce Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the 22-month conflict that has killed more than 60,000 people.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Hezbollah has also criticized the move in a statement: “Hezbollah strongly condemns this new Zionist aggression on Syria,” the group said, calling for “wide-scale condemnation from the international community.”
Israeli officials have warned in recent weeks that they would not tolerate any transfer of Syrian weapons to Islamist militants such as Hezbollah reports Voice Of America. Amnon Sofin, the former head of the Mossad Israeli intelligence service, says Israel’s greatest concern is that Syrian chemical weapons could come under control of Hezbollah militants along the Lebanese border.
Israel had informed the U.S. of its plans to attack a military target inside Syria prior to the strike said a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to the New York Times late on Wednesday.
