IDF Confirms Syria Strike

[Straha]

The army confirmed on Tuesday for the first time that the IAF did, in fact, hit a target deep inside Syria on September 6.

This was the only detail released for publication; Israel has kept quiet on the subject until now. However, various slip-ups by politicians have indicated that an attack did take place.

The information was released a day after Syrian President Bashar Assad told BBC Radio that IAF jets had hit an "unused military building" in his country.

Assad said Israel's air raid on northern Syria showed Israel's "visceral antipathy towards peace," according to excerpts posted on the BBC's Web site.

The comments were the first by the Syrian leader about the incursion, which raised speculation that warplanes had hit weapons headed for Hizbullah or even a nascent nuclear installation - reports Damascus has repeatedly denied.

Although Israel did not come out with an official statement following the incident, Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu broke the silence two weeks afterwards when he said he had congratulated Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on the strike.

In an interview with Channel 1, Netanyahu said that he was "part of the matter from the beginning" and that he knew to separate matters of national security from politics.

The overflight was first reported on Syrian television just after the attack, and various reports regarding the strike's target have circulated in the press over the past month.

The Washington Post reported that the target had been a facility involved in a joint Syrian-North Korean nuclear project - a claim backed by former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton.

Britain's Sunday Times, meanwhile, reported just over a week ago that soldiers from the IDF's elite General Staff Reconnaissance Unit (Sayeret Matkal) had seized North Korean nuclear material from a secret Syrian military installation before it was bombed by IAF jets.

The paper claimed that the IAF attack on September 6 was sanctioned by the US after the Americans were given proof that the material was indeed nuclear-related. It also stated that Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who used to head the unit, personally oversaw the operation.

However, Syrian officials have repeatedly called news of the strike lies and fabrications, and on Monday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem accused the US of inventing these reports.

"Some sources in the United States have spread rumors and fabricated news in order to justify this act of aggression," Moallem charged. "By distorting the facts they have become Israel's accomplices in this act of aggression."
Speaking to the UN, Moallem said the act was proof that the Jewish state wanted to escalate tensions.

No comment except I've seen only the bare minimum of news regarding this compared to other stories in the news media.

[Chardok]

*Castrates You.*

HEY! I've not seen you around in Ages! WB, or if you've been here, bad on me for not noticing!

Anyway, I think we had an article on this awhile back. But no point in necroing, I guess. The conclusion was that this was something like a recon flight that was armed, and they had to jettison when they got spotted. *shrug*

[Sea Skimmer]

I’m pretty sure Syria has now admitted that it was in fact bombed, but claims the only thing hit was an ‘abandon barracks’

[Straha]

*Castrates You.*

HEY! I've not seen you around in Ages! WB, or if you've been here, bad on me for not noticing!

Anyway, I think we had an article on this awhile back. But no point in necroing, I guess. The conclusion was that this was something like a recon flight that was armed, and they had to jettison when they got spotted. *shrug*

I've been around, but quiet and only posting here or there.

There's been a lot more news on this, I actually posted two threads on this before which garnered a grand total of zero posts I do believe. The main buzz is that quite a few people are claiming that Israel hit a nuclear weapons site or a dirty bomb location with material from North Korea (there are confirmed accounts of North Koreans being there IIRC.) And the reason why nobody is saying anything is, according to Stratfor's pet theory anyway, that it was the North Koreans who squealed about the site and the Americans don't want to reveal that they didn't know anything about this to the Middle East because of the huge intelligence failure that'd imply.

[Mange]

I’m pretty sure Syria has now admitted that it was in fact bombed, but claims the only thing hit was an ‘abandon barracks’

IIRC, I heard something about Syria claiming it was a 'construction site'.