SyriaHezbollah acknowledges Israel’s Monday air strike

Hezbollah, after initially denying that any of its forces were attacks Monday night, earlier today (Wednesday) admitted that Israel carried out an airstrike targeting the militia’s positions in Lebanon near the border with Syria. Hezbollah’s statement said the air strike caused damage but no casualties.

Time Magazine notes that Wednesday statement was the group’s first acknowledgement of the reported Monday night airstrikes.

Hezbollah said the attack was near the eastern Lebanese village of Janta.

Yesterday, a senior Israeli security official told Time that the target of the attack was a Syrian military convoy carrying surface-to-surface missiles into Lebanon.  

The Israeli official did not offer details about the missiles targeted in Monday’s strike, but he indicated they could carry warheads heavier and more dangerous than almost all of the tens of thousands of missiles and rockets Hezbollah now has in its arsenal.

Israel is determined not to allow the Assad regime to transfer advanced weapon systems to Hezbollah, and Monday’s attack was the eighth attack since January 2013 in which such weapons were destroyed before they could be delivered to Hezbollah. Time notes that the airstrikes targeted four categories of armaments:

• Advanced air defense systems such as the SA-17 batteries bombed in a convoy outside Damascus on 30 January 2013. If deployed in Lebanon, theses missile could erode Israel’s air superiority over Lebanon, where the Israel Air Force (IAF) now operate with impunity.
• More accurate surface-to-surface missiles, including the Iranian-made Fateh-110s, targeted in strikes last 2 and 5 May around Damascus. The missiles, with a range of 190 miles and accurate to within 200 yards, missiles could threaten targets such as power plants deep inside Israel.
• Long-range precision land-to-sea missiles such as the Russian-made Yakhont hypersonic anti-ship missiles targeted by Israel at least three times last year, in 5 May, 5 July, and 18 and 20 October. The cruise missiles, flying several times faster than sound, would threaten Israeli ships and off-shore natural gas platforms.
• Chemical weapons, which Syria has agreed to surrender to the UN for destruction. The 30 January 2013 strike on the SA-17 convoy also targeted a biological weapons research facility.

Of the eight strikes against advanced weapons deliveries to Hezbollah, this was the first one to hit targets inside Lebanon.

The airstrikes Monday occurred in darkness — ”They still think if they’re driving in convoy at night they can’t be seen,” the Israeli security official told Time. The official said that the border between Syria and Lebanon in that mountainous area is not clearly marked, and that, in any event, the pilot’s operational decision about where to direct his munitions is guided by a policy of trying to avoid collateral damage, such as nearby civilian houses, “not this side or that side of the border.”

Of the eight strikes against advanced weapons deliveries to Hezbollah, this was the first one to hit targets inside Lebanon.

“The major players in the arena are active and relevant. Hezbollah has not stopped for a second to try and get its hands on advanced weaponry,” said Brigadier-General Eli Sharvit, commander of the Haifa naval base, who is also responsible for naval affairs in the north.

Haaretz reports that Sharvit, speaking to reporters about Syrian arms transfers to Hezbollah, said, “The efforts of the organizations, including Hezbollah, to get their hands on attack weapons are not ceasing, and we have to deal with their desire.”

Sharvit added that the navy predicts that “advanced weaponry, including ‘Yakhont’ (long-range anti-ship) missiles, are in Hezbollah’s hands.”

“We are prepared for this, and we are getting ready for it,” he said.

Hezbollah, in its statement today, threatened to attack Israel in retaliation for the air strike.

“The new aggression is a blatant assault on Lebanon and its sovereignty and its territory… The Resistance [Hezbollah] will choose the time and place and the proper way to respond to it,” a statement on Hezbollah run Al-Manar television said.