Israel on Alert on Lebanon Border as Minister Stresses 'Policy' to Stop Arms Transfers to Hizbullah
Israeli troops on Monday went on alert along the border with Lebanon over fears of a military operation as a cabinet minister stressed that the Jewish State has a policy of preventing arms transfers to Hizbullah.
The state-run National News Agency said Israeli soldiers were on alert mainly in the area of the Shabaa Farms.
They carried out patrols in the areas of Wazzani and Kfarshouba hills as drones and helicopters flew overhead, the agency said.
The members of the patrols used goggles to monitor Lebanese territories, it added.
Israeli warplanes on Sunday struck near Damascus' international airport as well as outside a town close to the Lebanese border, the Syrian military said.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights quoted “trusted sources” as saying that the hangars that were bombed in the Dimas area near Damascus were “arms depots, most of which containing weapons for Lebanon's Hizbullah.”
“At least one of them contained missiles,” the sources said.
Citing reports, the Observatory said “several Hizbullah members” were killed in the strikes.
The raid on the Damascus airport targeted “supplies and equipment for regime forces and a small quantity of arms,” the Observatory said.
Since Syria's conflict began in March 2011, Israel has carried out several airstrikes in Syria that have targeted sophisticated weapons systems, including Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles and Iranian-made missiles, believed to be destined for Hizbullah.
Israel has never confirmed the strikes, and on Sunday the Israeli military said it does not comment on "foreign reports."
The Syrian armed forces' general command said Sunday's "flagrant attack" caused material damage, but did not provide any details on what was hit near the airport or in the town of Dimas, which is northwest of Damascus along the main highway from the capital to the Lebanese frontier.
"This aggression demonstrates Israel's direct involvement in supporting terrorism in Syria along with well-known regional and Western countries to raise the morale of terrorist groups, mainly the Nusra Front," the military said in a statement carried by SANA.
Israel's Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz refused to comment directly on Sunday's incident.
"We have a firm policy of preventing all possible transfers of sophisticated weapons to terrorist organisations," Steinitz told public radio on Monday in response to a question about the strikes, and apparently referring to Hizbullah.
Source: Associated Press, Naharnet, Agence France Presse
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