Israel Matzav

It starts: Israel strikes convoy on Lebanon-Syria border

Israel is quite serious about keeping chemical weapons out of the hands of the al-Qaeda dominated Free Syrian Army and Hezbullah. JPost is reporting based on a 'western diplomat' and 'three regional security sources' that Israel struck a convoy on the Lebanese-Syrian border overnight.

The sources, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, had no further information about what might have been hit or where precisely the attack happened, but the news website Al-Monitor quoted unnamed sources as saying that the target had been an arms convoy in Syria, close to the Lebanon border.

A Western diplomat in the region who asked about the strike said "something has happened", without elaborating.

An unnamed security source told AFP: "The Israeli air force blew up a convoy which had just crossed the border from Syria into Lebanon."

An activist in Syria who works with a network of opposition groups around the country said that she had heard of a strike in southern Syria from her colleagues but could not confirm.
The IDF has declined to comment on reports of a strike on the Syrian-Lebanese border. "We do not comment on reports of this kind," an IDF spokeswoman said.

Reports of incursions into Lebanese air space and the alleged strike follow a flurry of international visits by Israel's top brass.

YNet adds:

According to the report, the jets flew over the En Nakura area for several hours, leaving Lebanese airspace at around 2 am. The report, citing military sources, said that the first incursion took place at around 4:30 pm, when two jets flew over the village of Ramish, leaving at 9:05 pm.

As the duo was leaving – according to the Lebanese report – two other IAF jets entered Beirut's airspace, towards En Nakura, leaving at 2 am.

A Lebanese Army statement said that "Four Israeli planes entered Lebanese air space at 4:30 pm on Tuesday. They were replaced four hours later by another group of planes which overflew southern Lebanon until 2 am and a third mission took over, finally leaving at 7:55 am on Wednesday morning."

The statement made no mention of planes entering Syrian airspace.

A western diplomat and a security source said Wednesday that "Israeli forces have attacked a target on the Syrian-Lebanese border overnight."

Despite the ambiguity of Lebanon's reports, the diplomat – who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue – insisted that "There was definitely a hit in the border area."

The US-based Al-Monitor website reported Tuesday that IDF Intelligence Chief Maj-Gen. Aviv Kochavi traveled to Washington for closed-door consultations with American officials. Israeli officials would not comment on the matter.

Among those Kochavi met with at the Pentagon was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, the report said.  
 
According to Al-Monitor The IDF declined comment on the MI chief's visit, saying that "Israel does not comment on the working visits of IDF officers."

However, the website qouted an anonymous Israeli official as saying that "Some people say (the) IDF wouldn’t object to (the) opportunity to set the record straight vis-à-vis Hizballah... Also, there's the idea of putting them out of play, as done with Hamas recently."

Better this than a full scale war. If it's enough to keep Hezbullah in line, that's great. But I suspect it won't be....

Labels: chemical weapons, Free Syrian Army, Hezbullah, Lebanon overflights, Syrian air space, Syrian uprising

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:24 PM