Airstrike update
on 09/12/2007 at 08:46 AM
Update to the update: Here’s the link to the first report from Fox.
The Syrian government charged Thursday that Israeli aircraft dropped “munitions” inside Syria overnight and said its air defenses opened fire in a new escalation of tensions between the decades-old foes.
It was unclear what happened. Syria stopped short of accusing Israel of purposely bombing its territory, and an Israeli spokesman said he could not comment on military operations.
Analysts speculated such a foray could have been probing Syria’s defenses or monitoring long-range missile bases.
Today the Jerusalem Post conjectures that the target may have been a missile base, possibly equipped with munitions from North Korea.
They also add this highly interesting little tidbit:According to a report by The Nazareth-based al-Sinara newspaper Wednesday, the IAF targeted a joint Syrian-Iranian missile base in northern Syria. Reportedly, the Iranian-funded installation was razed to the ground.
and report that Syria is calling up it’s military reservists.Also on Wednesday, the Lebanese daily Almustakbal reported that since the alleged IAF foray over Syria last week there have been severe disturbances in Lebanese communications systems and cellular frequencies.
Advisors to Syrian President Bashar Assad are pressuring him to respond to the alleged IAF attack by “landing a blow to an Israeli target,” the Kuwait-based Al-Jareeda reported Wednesday. According to the report, Israel targeted long-range missile batteries that were brought to Syria from Iran. The report said five IAF fighter jets carried out the attack.
An official in the Bush administration told the New York Times Wednesday that in recent days the IAF has flown over Syria several times in an attempt to gain intelligence on a number of suspected nuclear facilities Israel believes have been sponsored by North Korea.
Stay tuned ...
USA confirms the event, keeps mum on the details.
Ynet news says nuke material, “possible nuclear installations”. Does that mean a missile base?
Yoni the Blogger says Israeli TV says the target was in the Deir Ez-Zour area near the Euphrates river ... which makes the map in the original JPost article pretty accurate, and my guess at the airport there pretty good. Google Earth images are not real-time, but often several years old, so they don’t show any craters. Rats. Yoni calls the target “large and important”.
So the story is going around, but we’re not really getting anything new. Guess it will be a big mystery until Israel opens up. Talk has been buzzing around the net for almost a week now; first it was denied completely, then by one side or the other, then it was “just a flyover”, then it had an “ammo dump” (dropping stuff off the plane for more maneuverability) that caused no damage whatsoever, then it was a munitions shipment, now we’re hearing the real “N-word”. I wonder if the truth will ever come out?
Time for Israel to buzz the Chinless One’s palace once again....
