Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — Israel has struck Syria in what appeared to be an attempt
to stop the flow of chemical and advanced conventional weapons to Hizbullah.

Lebanese sources said the Israel Air Force struck a Syrian convoy near
the border with Lebanon on early Jan. 30. They said Israeli F-16 multi-role
fighter jets attacked a convoy of trucks believed to contain advanced
Russian-origin surface-to-air missiles. Hours later, Syria confirmed an
Israeli attack.

“Four warplanes flew over [the Lebanese town of] Nakoura and remained in the hour for several hours before leaving Lebanese air space,” the Lebanese Army said.

The Lebanese statement reported several sorties, the last of which took
place at 2 a.m. local time. The Army did not say whether the Israeli
warplanes also entered Syria.

“I heard about the aerial raid during the meetings [with Turkish
officials] and I haven’t received any confirmation from Lebanese
authorities,” Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Miqati told a news conference in Ankara.

Israel has not confirmed the strike in Syria, but facilitated a briefing
by a former official of the Mossad intelligence agency. The Air Force attack
came after several days of warnings by senior Israeli officials and military
commanders of the flow of Syrian weapons to Hizbullah.

“We are now looking very carefully to see [if there are] some convoys
coming out from Syria to Lebanon transferring weapons systems and maybe some
other things as well, by which I mean chemical weapons,” Amnon Sofrin, the
former Mossad official, said. “It [the warhead] can be suitable for the Scud
missiles and can be mounted on them and this is something we are looking
very carefully at.”

Over the last 48 hours, senior Israeli officials and commanders were
sent to Russia and the United States for briefings on the Syrian CW threat.
The briefings included the visit by Israel National Security adviser Yaakov
Amidror to Moscow and Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi to
Washington.

“I think that if we have solid evidence shared by our own partners all
over the world that chemical warheads are being transferred from Syria to
Lebanon, to the Hizbullah, I think that no one will condemn Israel for
trying to prevent it,” Sofrin told the briefing several hours before the
Lebanese Army statement on the air strike.

Western diplomats said the convoy was believed to have contained the
Russian-origin SA-17 air defense system. The diplomats said the mobile
SA-17, believed delivered to Syria in 2007, marked a significant improvement
over Hizbullah’s anti-aircraft capabilities and could have threatened
Israeli operations.

For its part, the Assad regime said the Israeli air strike targeted a
military research center near Damascus. The Syrian military command said two
people were killed and five injured in the purported Israeli attack, but did
not cite damage to the facility in Jamraya, known as having developed CW
agents until mid-2012. The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
reported a huge fire at Jamraya.

“Israeli fighter-jets violated our air space at dawn today and carried
out a direct strike on a scientific research center in charge of raising our
level of resistance and self-defense,” the Syrian military command said in
the Jan. 30 statement.

  Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, Mossad, Najib Miqati, Nakoura, Report: Israeli fighter jets strike Syrian convoy near Lebanese border