The regime of embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad has claimed that Israel bombed a “scientific research center” northwest of Damascus, while most Western sources reports that the Air Force bombed a truck convoy carrying advanced Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles en route to the Hizbullah army in Lebanon.
The Syrian regime earlier denied reports of an attack, but now it is stating that five people were killed in the supposed bombing of the research center, which is involved in chemical weapons.
“This proves that Israel is the instigator, beneficiary and sometimes executor of the terrorist acts targeting Syria and its people,” according to a regime statement.
The Syrian claim could not be verified because of the blackout on news from the war-torn country,
Israel remains silent on the reported strike following earlier reports from Lebanon that Israeli Air Force planes staged flyovers late Tuesday night and early Wednesday.
Israel has warned several times that Hizbullah is receiving advanced weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles, from Assad.
Air Force Commander Amir Eshel said on Tuesday that Syria possesses “an enormous arsenal of weapons, some state of the art and some non-conventional, [which] could find its way to our borders and not just to our backyards.”
The Syrian army claimed that Israel’s planes crossed into Syria from the Golan Heights.
Al Jazeera reported that a source from the Syrian rebels said that Air Force planes struck before dawn and it a truck convoy near the Damascus-Beirut in the area of the border.
An anonymous U.S. official also confirmed the strike on the convoy, but White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters, “I’d refer you to the government of Israel for questions about deliberations or actions that they may or may not have taken.”