Meanwhile the world is burning will W fiddles and people worry about Arnie....
Israel Strikes Syria After Suicide Bombing
By Ravi Nessman
The Associated Press | Washington Post
Sunday 05 October 2003
Israeli warplanes bombed Syria on Sunday, striking what the military called an Islamic Jihad training
base in retaliation for a suicide bombing at a Haifa restaurant. It was the first Israeli attack deep inside
Syrian territory in three decades.
The attack -- one day after an Islamic Jihad bomber killed 19 people -- threatened to widen three
years of Israeli-Palestinian violence into neighboring countries and marked a dramatic new strategy in
Israel's efforts to stop terror attacks.
Israel, which accuses Syria of harboring and funding Islamic Jihad, said it would strike at terrorists
anywhere in the region. A statement from the military also accused Iran of funding and directing Islamic
Jihad, saying Israel "will act with determination against all who harm its citizens."
"Any country who harbors terrorism, who trains (terrorists), supports and encourages them will be
responsible to answer for their actions," government spokesman Avi Pazner said.
Syria's Foreign Ministry issued a terse statement saying it plans to lodge an "urgent complaint"
against Israel with the United Nations. The U.N. spokesman's office confirmed that the Security
Council called an emergency meeting Sunday in response to Syria's request.
But a direct military response by Syria appeared unlikely. One parliament member, George Jabbour,
said military action has not benefitted Syria in the past.
A Jihad spokesman denied the organization has any bases in Syria. A senior commander from
another radical Palestinian group -- the Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine-General Command -- said the camp belong to his group, not Jihad, but had long been
abandoned. The attack injured a civilian guard, the commander said, speaking on condition of
anonymity.
President Bush on Sunday telephoned condolences to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for
Saturday's suicide attack, while Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon conferred with White House and
State Department officials.
"We urge all sides to exercise restraint and to keep in mind the consequences of their actions," the
State Department said in a statement.
Sunday's strike came a day before the 30th anniversary of the joint Syrian-Egyptian attack known in
Israel as the Yom Kippur War -- named after the holiest day in the Jewish calendar which begins at
sundown Sunday. It was believed to be the first Israeli operation on Syrian soil since that war, though
in 1985 Israeli warplanes flying over Lebanon pursued Syrian fighters into Syrian airspace and shot
them down.
In Sunday's strike, the Israeli air force hit several targets at the Ein Saheb camp about 14 miles
northwest of Damascus, according to Israeli security officials. The base was used by several terrorist
organizations, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the army said in a statement.
Undated footage of the camp released by the Israeli military and taken from Iranian television shows
a military officer conducting a tour. In one room were displayed hundreds of weapons, including
grenades with Hebrew markings and other weapons apparently captured from Israel. Another scene
showed a series of underground tunnels packed with arms and ammunition.
Israel had not yet determined if any people were killed, said Sharon adviser Raanan Gissin. "This
was a measured response," he said. "We did not attack Syrian targets, but very specific camps used
to train the terrorists."
Speaking on the Al-Jazeera television network, Abu Emad El-Refaei, an Islamic Jihad spokesman in
Beirut, denied there were any Islamic Jihad bases in Syria. "All our bases are inside the Palestinian
occupied territories," he said. He did not deny militants received training in Syria.
[Reuters reported that the leading Palestinian militant group Hamas vowed today to exact revenge
against Israel for its air strike on what Israeli officials called a militant training camp in Syria. Hamas's
armed wing, the Izz al-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement faxed to Reuters that the
targeted facility was a Palestinian refugee camp. "(Our) response to this serious escalation will one of
deterrence and it will happen soon in the depths fo the criminal Zionist entity," it said.]
The strike was a dramatic escalation in Israel's response to the suicide bombings that have plagued
it during the past three years of violence with the Palestinians. Until now, Israel has focused its
retaliation on the Gaza Strip and West Bank, either with large-scale incursions or pinpoint strikes
against militant leaders.
Now Israel insisted it was going after the militants' suppport abroad, but the strike threatened to
draw Syria into the conflict.
Over the past 30 years, most military action between Israel and Syria has taken place in Lebanon,
which is dominated by Damascus and where thousands of Syrian troops are deployed. On April 16,
2001, Israeli warplanes blasted a Syrian radar station in Lebanon, killing three Syrian soldiers. That
strike came in retaliation for an attack by Hezbollah, the Syrian-backed Shiite guerrilla group, in which
an Israeli soldier was killed.
Since the invasion of Iraq, the United States has hiked up pressure on Syria, accusing it of
harboring terrorists. After demands by Washington, Syria closed the offices of Islamic Jihad, the larger
Islamic militant group Hamas, and other radical Palestinian groups. However, most of the groups'
officials continue to work from their homes in Damascus or from Lebanon.
The United States had been pushing Syria to act further and expel Hamas and Islamic Jihad
leaders, but Damascus has refused.
"Syria has been warned more than once by the United States that it should close all the facilities of
the Islamic Jihad," Pazner said. "Apparently it has not done so."
Jihad claimed responsibility for Saturday's suicide bombing in the Mediterranean seaside restaurant
Maxim, popular with both Jews and Arabs in the northern Israeli city of Haifa. A Palestinian woman
wrapped in explosives blew herself up in the crowded restaurant, killing 19 people, including four
children, and wounding 55 people.
It was one of the deadliest suicide bombings in three years of violence.
In addition to the attack inside Syria, Israel also conducted operations in Gaza and the West Bank.
Israeli troops sealed off parts of Gaza, cutting the 20-mile long coastal strip into four sections, to
prevent the movement of militants and weapons, army officials said.
Israeli helicopters launched missile strikes on two sites in Gaza - a small empty house in Gaza City
and the house of an Islamic Jihad leader in the Boureij refugee camp. There were no injuries in either
attack, and residents said the militant leader escaped.
In the West Bank, army forces in Jenin destroyed the house of the family of Hanadi Jaradat, a
27-year-old woman identified as the Haifa suicide bomber. The soldiers also destroyed the house of the
head of Islamic Jihad in Jenin.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called his advisers for an emergency meeting Saturday evening,
and Vice Premier Ehud Olmert said Israel faced tough decisions and, if necessary, would carry them
out regardless of international opinion.
"The world will have to accept our decisions," Olmert said.
Saturday's bombing increased fears Israel might act on threats to remove Arafat. Palestinian officials
appealed to international mediators to ensure Arafat's safety.
Arafat condemned the suicide bombing and said it endangered Palestinian interests.
The United States opposes expelling Arafat, and Israel's security chiefs are divided on the issue.
Hours after the blast, two Israeli planes briefly circled Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah, and Israeli
army jeeps drove past.
When Powell spoke to Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom on Saturday, he was told Israel would
consult with the United States before acting against Arafat.
Saturday's bombing brought to 103 the number of suicide bombings in the past three years of
Israeli-Palestinian fighting. At least 432 people have been killed in these attacks.
Add this to the current North Korean debacle of ACTUAL NUKES AND MISSILES COMBINED.....
and Bush continues to do nothing meaningful.
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