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Israeli jets 'forced to flee'
28/06/2006 21:40 - (SA)
Damascus - Syria on Wednesday said its air defencses opened fire on Israeli warplanes that overflew the country, forcing them to flee. It said Israel was making a "big mistake" if it was trying to send Damascus a message over its support for Hamas.
State-run Syrian television said two Israeli planes flew "at a low altitude" near Syria's Mediterranean coast around dawn on Wednesday. But the report did not mention Israel's announcement that the planes swooped low over the summer residence of Syrian President Bashar Assad in the coastal city of Latakia early on Wednesday.
"The overflight by two Israeli planes near the Syrian shores is an aggressive act and a provocation," the television news said, quoting an unidentified information ministry official.
It said "national air defences opened fire in the direction of the planes, and they dispersed and left the area".
Israeli officials said Assad was targeted in the overflight because of the "direct link" between Syria and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that seized an Israeli soldier in the Gaza Strip. Syria hosts Khaled Meshaal, Hamas's exiled supreme leader.
Syria denied the Damascus-based Hamas leadership had any connection to the kidnapping.
"If the goal of this (overflight) is to blame the political leadership of Hamas for the abduction of the Israeli soldier, then Israel is making a big mistake that is goes beyond logic," the ministry official said, according to the TV report.
The official said the abduction "is an operation that could not have taken place by remote control" by orders from Damascus.
He said the overflight "reflects Israel's failure and its domestic troubles, which it is trying to export to the outside as it makes accusations against others".
- AP
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