Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Israel conducted air strike inside Syria -- CNN

Agence France-Presse

Last updated 11:31pm (Mla time) 09/11/2007

WASHINGTON -- Israel carried out a rare air strike inside Syria last week targeting a shipment of arms, CNN reported Tuesday quoting US government and military sources.

Israeli officials have so far maintained a veil of silence over Syrian reports that Israeli warplanes violated its airspace on Thursday ratcheting up the tension between the neighboring foes still officially at war.

Reporter Christiane Amanpour said Tuesday on the Cable News Network (CNN) that "sources now are telling me that in fact Israel did conduct a military strike against Syrian territory. That it was an air strike, that it perhaps involved Israeli ground forces."

She added it was believed the strike targeted "weapons that were either coming into Syria or that were being trans-shipped from Iran through Syria to Hezbollah."

US government and US military officials had told CNN that Israel did conduct a rare air strike inside Syria and "it has left a big hole in the desert," she added.

Syria said its air defenses had opened fire on Israeli warplanes flying over the northeast of the country in the early hours of Thursday and warned it was weighing its response to the Israeli "aggression."

But Israeli officials have made no comment on the allegations, as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "specifically instructed ministers not to talk about the incident related to Syria at all," one senior Israeli government official said.

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