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Syria fires on Israeli planes
06/09/2007 14:51 - (SA)
Damascus - Syria said it opened fire on Israeli warplanes which had violated Syrian airspace at dawn on Thursday, heightening tensions between the two foes.
"Enemy Israeli planes penetrated Syrian air space from the Mediterranean Sea heading towards the northeast, breaking the sound barrier," said an army spokesperson.
"Our air defences repulsed them and forced them to leave... after the Israeli planes dropped ammunition, without causing human or material loss," he said.
"The Syrian Arab Republic warns the government of the Israeli enemy against this aggressive action and reserves the right to respond in any way it deems appropriate."
No immediate response
There was no immediate response from Israel, which in June 2006 angered Damascus when its warplanes flew over President Bashar al-Assad's palace in northern Syria while he was inside.
Over the past few months, Israeli and Syrian leaders have both said their countries do not want a war, but were preparing for any possibility while each side has accused the other of arming for a conflict.
Syria and Israel remain technically at a state of war, and peace talks broke down in 2000 over the fate of the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau captured by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed in 1981.
The last overflight by Israel in 2006 came amid high tensions in the Middle East after the Jewish state launched a massive military offensive on the Gaza Strip to try to retrieve a soldier captured by Palestinian militants.
The Gaza action was followed just a few weeks later by a devastating Israeli war in Lebanon against the Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah militia, after two soldiers were captured in a raid by the guerrillas.
Syria shelters a number of radical Palestinian groups, and is home to Khaled Meshaal, the exiled supremo of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) who tops Israel's wanted list.
'Reducing military presence'
Last month, Israel said it was reducing its military presence on the Golan Heights and lowering its level of alert following months of increased tensions with Syria.
However, it said it will continue to conduct regular training on the plateau as part of its training following the Lebanon war against Hezbollah, which revealed major shortcomings in the army's conduct.
And Israel continues to carry out occasional flights over neighbouring Lebanon.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak also said in August that "Israel does not want a war and Syria, according to our estimates, does not wish for one either".
Thursday's action comes exactly a month to the day before the anniversary of the October 1973 war.
On October 6, 1973, Egypt and Syria launched surprise attacks on Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, to recover territory lost in the 1967 Middle East war, although they were again defeated
- AFP
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