A senior Israeli source says the attacks target Iranian weapons bound for Lebanese militant group
DAMASCUS: Israeli raids on Syrian targets at the weekend killed at least 15 soldiers, a watchdog said yesterday, as UN chief Ban Ki-moon led calls for restraint to prevent the war spilling over borders.
UN human rights investigator Carla del Ponte, meanwhile, said that rebels have used the deadly nerve agent sarin in their fight to oust Syria’s regime.
“At least 15 soldiers were killed, and dozens more are missing after the Israeli strikes near Damascus,” said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“These three sites (targeted) would usually have around 150 soldiers in them, but it’s not clear if they were all there at the time of the strikes.”
Sunday’s pre-dawn Israeli raids were the Jewish state’s second such attack on Syria in 48 hours.
A senior Israeli source said the raids targeted Iranian weapons destined for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Iran and the Shiite group Hezbollah are steadfast allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, and arch-foes of of Israel.
The strikes came ahead of a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s to China, another ally of Assad’s regime.
UN leader Ban, meanwhile, warned against any escalation of a conflict that has killed more than 70,000 people in Syria since it erupted in March 2011.
“The secretary-general calls on all sides to exercise maximum calm and restraint, and to act with a sense of responsibility to prevent an escalation of what is already a devastating and highly dangerous conflict,” his spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
“The secretary-general urges respect for national sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries in the region, and adherence to all relevant Security Council resolutions.”
Ban spoke by telephone with Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi, whose 22-member bloc demanded UN Security Council intervention to stop such Israeli attacks.
Egypt condemned the raids as a ‘violation’ of international law, Britain warned of ‘increasing danger’ to the Middle East, and France called for a political solution to the conflict.
Russia, the Assad regime’s most powerful ally, said it was ‘especially’ concerned by the Israeli strikes, warning they threatened neighbouring Lebanon.
China implicitly criticised the Israeli strikes as Netanyahu arrived in Shanghai, saying “we are opposed to the use of force and believe that the sovereignty of any country should be respected”.
The Syrian regime’s main regional ally Iran said the strikes would shorten Israel’s existence, and denied the weapons targeted were from the Islamic republic.
Damascus said in a letter to the Security Council that Israeli warplanes launched an ‘aggression,’ firing missiles against three army positions.
A diplomatic source in Beirut told AFP the sites were the Jamraya military facility, a nearby weapons depot and an anti-aircraft unit in Sabura, west of the capital.
The letter said claims Syria was transferring anything were ‘unfounded’ and accused Israel of coordinating with ‘terrorist groups’ – the regime term for rebels fighting to oust Assad.
Official Al-Ikhbariya television quoted unnamed sources as saying that “Syrian missiles are ready to strike specific targets in case of any (further) violations”.
Sunday’s strike came about 48 hours after a reported Israeli raid on a weapons storage facility at Damascus airport.
Residents of the Damascus district of Dumar said Sunday’s strike felt ‘like an earthquake’.
Video footage appeared to show missiles lighting up clouds, blazing fires, and an explosion producing a massive orange fireball. — AFP