Syrian rebel and intelligence sources yesterday said Israel has struck an arms supply hub operated by the Lebanese Hezbollah group near Damascus airport where weapons from Tehran are regularly sent by commercial and military cargo planes.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is backed in the country’s six-year civil war by Russia, Iran and regional Shiite militias, including Hezbollah, which is a close ally of Tehran and a sworn enemy of Israel.
Israeli Minister of Intelligence Israel Katz, speaking from the US, where he has been meeting US officials, told Israeli Army Radio: “I can confirm that the incident in Syria corresponds completely with Israel’s policy to act to prevent Iran’s smuggling of advanced weapons via Syria to Hezbollah in Iran. Naturally, I don’t want to elaborate on this.”
“The [Israeli] prime minister has said that whenever we receive intelligence that indicated an intention to transfer advanced weapons to Hezbollah, we will act,” Katz said.
An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment.
Two senior rebel sources operating in the Damascus area cited their monitors in the eastern outskirts of the Syrian capital, where the airport is located, as saying five strikes had hit an ammunition depot used by Iran-backed militias.
Lebanon’s al-Manar television, which is affiliated with Hezbollah, said early indications were that the strikes hit warehouses and fuel tanks, and had caused only material damage and no human casualties.
Israeli officials have said that they view any movement of advanced weaponry to Hezbollah units in Syria as a “red line” that would prompt it to carry out airstrikes or artillery fire.
A senior regional intelligence source who requested anonymity said the targeted depot handles a significant volume of weapons sent by air by Iran, a leading ally of al-Assad in the region.
The source said many of the arms are destined for an array of Iran-backed militias, led by Hezbollah, which have thousands of fighters engaged in some of the toughest fronts against Syrian rebels.
Pro-Syrian government media and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights early yesterday reported a large blast near the airport and a resident of central Damascus several kilometers away said it woke her up.
The rebel sources said the attack caused a fire with flames appearing to come from a closed military area of the complex they believed was used by Tehran to supply weapons to Iranian-backed militias operating alongside the Syrian army.
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