US official saysIsraeli warplanes launchedairstrikes against targets inside
Syria on Friday, as the United States continued toweigh its options for
action in the country.However, President Obama said that U.S.troops on
the ground was unlikely. NBC's Richard Engel reports. By Robert Windrem,
Jim Miklaszewski and Andrea Mitchell, NBC News Israeli jets bombed a
military research facility north of Damascus early Sunday, a senior official
told NBC News -- the secondIsraeli attack on targets in Syria in recent days.
Heavy explosions shook the city, and video
shot by activists showed a fireball rising into
the sky after Sunday's strikes, according to
Reuters.
"The new Israeli attack is an attempt to raise
the morale of the terrorist groups which have
been reeling from strikes by our noble army,"
Syrian television said.
A White House official said there would be
no official comment Saturday night on the
latest attack.
On Friday, Israeli warplanes launched strikes
against targets inside Syria, U.S. officials
told NBC News. It’s believed the primary
target was a shipment of weapons headed
for Hezbollah in Lebanon, they said. A senior
U.S. official said the airstrikes were believed
to be related to delivery systems for
chemical weapons.
Advertise | AdChoicesAn Israeli spokesman
in Washington said that Israel would not
comment specifically on the reports but said
that “Israel is determined to prevent the
transfer of chemical weapons or other game-
changing weaponry by the Syrian regime to
terrorists, especially to Hezbollah in
Lebanon.”
It wasn’t clear whether the Israelis alerted
the U.S. before the attack. White House
officials referred all questions to the Israelis.
Syrian government sources denied having
information of a strike. Bashar Ja'afari, the
Syrian ambassador to the United Nations,
told Reuters: "I'm not aware of any attack
right now."
In an interview with Telemundo, President
Obama says that while he won't comment on
reported Israeli airstrikes over Syria, he
backs Israel's efforts in guarding against the
transfer of advanced weaponry to terrorist
organizations like Hezbollah. NBC's Kristen
Welker reports.
But Qassim Saadedine, a commander and
spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army,
told the news agency: "Our information
indicates there was an Israeli strike on a
convoy that was transferring missiles to
Hezbollah. We have still not confirmed the
location."
Rebel units were in disagreement about what
type of weapons were in the convoy, Reuters
reported. A rebel from an information-
gathering unit in Damascus that calls itself
"The Syrian Islamic Masts Intelligence" said
the convoy carried anti-aircraft missiles.
The rebel, who asked not to be named,
added: "There were three strikes by Israeli F-
16 jets that damaged a convoy carrying anti-
aircraft missiles heading to the Shi'ite
Lebanese party (Hezbollah) along the
Damascus-Beirut military road. "One strike
hit a site near the (Syrian) Fourth Armoured
Division in al-Saboura but we have been
unable to determine what is in that location".
However, Saadedine told Reuters he did not
think the weapons were anti-aircraft. "We
have nothing confirmed yet but we are
assuming that it is some type of long-range
missile that would be capable of carrying
chemical materials," he said.
In January, Israeli fighter jets attacked a
convoy of sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles
believed on their way to Hezbollah.
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon
publicly acknowledged the January airstrike
inside Syria in a joint press conference with
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in Tel Aviv
on April 22. Ya’alon said any Syrian delivery
of sophisticated weapons to rogue elements
like Hezbollah would be a “red line” for Israel
and “when they crossed this red line, we
operated. We acted.”
