Israel says it may attack Syria

2003-10-05 12:23

Jerusalem - Israel could launch new attacks on Syria if the country continues to shelter "terrorist organisations who are preparing anti-Israeli attacks", Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's spokesperson said on Sunday.

"The attack carried out by our air force some 15 kilometres north of Damascus is a warning aimed at making Damascus understand that all those who abet and support terrorism no longer enjoy any immunity wherever they are," Raanan Gissin said.

"Syria can only blame itself because it refused to deliver on the commitments it made to the United States after the Gulf war to close down the headquarters of terrorist organisations based on its soil," he added.

Israeli said on Sunday its air force launched a raid on an Islamic Jihad training camp in Syria, in retaliation for a suicide bomb attack by the hardline Palestinian group which killed 19 people in the northern Isralei city of Haifa on Saturday.

The raid was the first direct attack by Israel on Syrian soil in some two decades.

Gissin stressed that "the training camp targeted 16 kilometres north of Damascus was used to train terrorists belonging to Islamic Jihad and Hamas".

"This base was financed and ideologically controlled by Iran," Gissin said.

- AFP