Israel hits Hezbollah arms shipment in Syria

There was no official confirmation from Israel, but prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned in recent weeks that Israel would take military action if chemical weapons or other sophisticated arms were to reach the Shia militant group, which is allied to Syria‘s President Bashar Assad.

The Associated Press quoted Israeli officials as saying that the air force had attacked a shipment of advanced, long-range ground-to-ground missiles en route to Lebanon.

CNN quoted unnamed US officials as saying tha Israeli jets did not enter Syrian air space. Israel’s air force has so-called “standoff” bombs that can be launched from Israel or neighbouring Lebanon.

Syrian government sources denied having information about an attack, but Qassim Saadedine, a commander and spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army, said: “Our information indicates there was an Israeli strike on a convoy that was transferring missiles to Hezbollah. We have still not confirmed the location.”

The attack is the latest Israeli attempt to disrupt the Shia militia’s goal of building an arsenal capable of defending its territory in Lebanon against Israel’s air force and spreading destruction inside the Jewish state.

Israel appears to be conducting itself judiciously. Giora Eiland

In January, the Israeli air force is believed to have targeted a shipment of advanced SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles bound for Hezbollah. Israel has not formally admitted carrying out that airstrike, though officials have strongly hinted they were behind the attack.

The long war

Israel remains technically at war with neighbouring Syria after capturing the Golan Heights border region in the 1967 Middle East war.

Israeli concerns have risen since Islamist fighters linked to al-Qaeda assumed a prominent role in the armed insurrection against Assad. The Jewish state is also worried that Hezbollah guerrillas allied to Assad could obtain his chemical arsenal and other advanced weaponry.

Giora Eiland, a former Israeli army general and national security adviser, said: “I don’t anticipate far-reaching consequences in Lebanon or Syria (from Israel’s actions). Israel appears to be conducting itself judiciously.”

Reports of massacre in village

Anti-government activists say forces loyal to Assad carried out a massacre in the coastal village of Baida, in the Tartous region, on Thursday.

Footage circulated on social media purported to show the bodies of 20 people, all from the same family, including an infant in the arms of its mother. The pictures could not be independently verified.

According to pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, state forces and militia stormed Baida and killing 50 to 100 people in revenge for a rebel attack on a busload of pro-Assad Shabiha fighters.