Israel Matzav

Slain Syrian provided SA-8 missiles to Hezbullah?

Sunday's Times of London reports that slain Syrian General Mohamed Suleiman provided advanced SA-8 mobile anti-aircraft missiles to Hezbullah. Before I go on, I should probably preface this report with an Uzi Mahnaimi alert.

The assassinated aide, Brigadier-General Muhammad Suleiman, 49, was “more important than anyone else”, wrote the London-based Saudi paper Al-Sharq al-Awsat last week: “He was senior even to the defence minister. He knew everything.”

He was killed by a single shot to the head as he sat in the garden of his summer house near the northern port city of Tartus.

Nobody heard the shot, which appears to have been fired from a speedboat by a sniper, possibly equipped with a silencer. The expertise required to execute such a long-distance sniper murder has led suspicion to fall upon the Israelis.

Or a jealous rival or an internal element who felt the concentration of so much power in one hand was a threat to the regime. And they would sure want the Israelis blamed, wouldn't they?

If Syria has passed Russian-made SA-8 mobile launchers to Hezbollah, the Shi’ite militia that came close to defeating the Israeli army two years ago, it is in possession of a potent weapon to defy Israeli air power.

Ehud Barak, Israel’s defence minister, recently warned that Hezbollah was straining his country’s patience in Lebanon. Hezbollah announced last week its next military step would be “to stop Israeli fighter planes flying over our land”.

I sure hope the Israelis did it. Because if the Israelis killed Mughniyah and now Suleiman, Assad has a big problem.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:43 PM