Israel Matzav

Mis-fired Syrian scud kills 20 in marketplace; UPDATED

When you don't have a free press, it takes a little while for news like this to get out. 20 Syrians were killed and 60 were injured in a failed scud missile test carried out by Syria, Iran and North Korea in Syria... in May. The report came from Friday's Kyodo News in Japan.

One of two missiles had apparently strayed off its course due to a technical malfunction, landing in a civilian populated area in a town on the Syrian-Turkish border. The victims were all civilians.

The incident was part of a botched attempt to test a new short-range ballistic missile developed together by the three countries, the report said.

According to Kyodo News, the area - a marketplace - was immediately closed off to the public, who was told that a gas explosion had ensued and was the cause of the wreckage.

It was unclear where the other missile landed.

Anyone who thought that Syria was not still working on weapons' development with Iran and North Korea ought to be enlightened.

But what's more interesting is the location, "a town on the Syrian-Turkish border." Anyone else remember where the El-Kibar nuclear plant that Israel destroyed in September 2007 was located? (Go to the link to find out).

Hmmm.

UPDATE 8:10 AM

DEBKA fills in some of the details of this story.

DEBKAfile's sources report that they targeted an uninhabited desert area in the North, 500 kilometers away, just south of Ayn Diwar and east of Al Qamishli not far from the Syrian-Turkish-Iraqi border intersection.

(It was here that Syria and Iraq, with Russian help, interred Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction in 2001.)

However, one of the missiles strayed 350-400 km west of its projected course, indicating a problem with its guidance system. It exploded in the center of the small town of Manbij north of Aleppo near the Turkish border, killing at least 20 people, injuring 60 and badly damaging the market town.

The second missile exploded in mid-course in the South, over the north of the town of Abu Kamal and 200 kilometers from its launching site. Syrian military authorities closed the area around the stricken town of Manbij for more than a month, attributing the disaster to a gas explosion.

Japanese intelligence sources, who are anxiously tracking the growing missile collaboration between North Korea, Iran and Syria, do not name the failed new missile, but DEBKAfile's military sources suggest it was a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) propelled by solid fuel with a range of 800-1,000 kilometers and fitted with a warhead containing between 800 kilos and one ton of explosives. This would be an improvement on most of the three nations' short-range missiles which are powered with liquid fuel.

Hmmm.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:00 AM