Israelis bomb Syrian military base

Some very slanted reporting from Radio NZ and the zionist J Post that nevertheless breaks the news

BREAKING NEWS: Israel launches air attack on Syrian military base - reports

From Lebanon's Daily Star

Blasts hit air base in western Syria: Activists

The Daily Star (Lebanon), 31 October, 2013 BEIRUT: A series of explosions struck an air base Thursday in the western Syrian province of Latakia, a regime stronghold, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. "Several explosions were heard in an air defence base in the Snubar Jableh area" on Wednesday, said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman. He said the cause of the explosions is "unclear" and that no casualties have been reported. A Syrian security source meanwhile told AFP that "a rocket fell near the base, causing a fire to break out." Latakia is a stronghold of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, and is home to a large number of Alawites, who belong to the same minority Shiite sect as the country's embattled ruler. In July, ammunition warehouses in the area were hit by rockets. The Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of activists and other witnesses across Syria, did not report on the source of the rocket fire. Israeli planes strike Syrian military base - US official confirms to media Israeli warplanes struck a Syrian air defense base near the port city of Latakia on Thursday, US official have confirmed to media RT, 31 October, 2013 An Obama administration official told AP that the attack happened overnight on Thursday, but provided no details. Another security official told the news agency that it took place in the Syrian port city of Latakia, and that the targets were Russian-made SA-125 missiles. Another US official told CNN that the Israelis believed the base near Snobar Jableh, south of Latakia, had sensitive and sophisticated missile equipment that may have been transferred to the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah. Earlier, Dubai-based broadcaster al-Arabiya reported two attacks carried out by the Israeli Air Forces – one in Latakia and the other one in Damascus. Neither the Syrian nor Israeli governments have commented on the alleged attacks. A spokesman for the Israeli Defense Ministry declined to speak on the matter. "We're not commenting on these reports," he told Reuters. However, an Israeli official speaking anonymously to the news agency said he was inclined to believe that Israel had carried out a strike, although he was not entirely certain. The Lebanese military said it observed six Israeli jets flying over Lebanese territory on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Israeli jets frequently fly over Lebanon, but such high numbers have in the past been an indication of a military strike against Syria. Earlier in the day, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said there was a series of explosions at a Syrian air defense base in the Mediterranean coastal province of Latakia. "Several explosions were heard in an air defense base in the Snubar Jableh area," SOHR director Rami Abdel Rahman said, adding that the reason for the blasts remains “unclear.” No casualties have been reported. Meanwhile, a Syrian security source said that "a rocket fell near the base, causing a fire to break out," AFP reported. However, RT Arabic’s source within the Syrian security forces has denied the media reports. Ammar al-Asad, head of the foreign affairs committee within the Syrian National Council, said in an interview with RT that "In Latakia, we did not hear any sounds, incidents, or anything that can prove the attack happened." There have been five previous incidents in which Israel is believed to have struck inside Syria. The first of those took place in January. In all of the alleged attacks, the reason given was that Israel feared that weapons were making their way into the hands of Hezbollah. But many critics said that it was just an excuse for a blatant direct attack inside Syria, RT’s Paula Slier explained. In the past, Damascus has threatened to strongly retaliate against such attacks. Syrian Army Base Rocked Again By Overnight Explosions, Israel Implicated Zero Hedge, 31 October, 2013 The last time major explosions were reported near Damascus, it was in May when Israel and its air force did everything in their power to provoke the Assad regime to escalate military operations both domestically and abroad. It almost succeeded when three months later Obama nearly led a falseflag-driven "liberation" force facilitating Saudi and Qatari energy interests in the region and their pipeline ambitions below Syria. Since then Israel had been largely dormant, seething in its (and Saudi) disappointment that it was unable to play Obama like a fiddle. The unstable detente changed again overnight, when as Haaretz reports "a large explosion was heard at a Syrian army missile base in Latakia.  Eye witnesses told the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human rights that the explosion took place near Snobar Jableh, south of the city. It was not yet clear whether anyone was wounded in the strike." And not surprisingly, it is once again Israel' that was implicated in the latest regional provocation because as Haaretz adds, the "strike follows Lebanese media reports that Israeli aircraft circled above southern Lebanon." "The official Lebanese news agency reported that Israeli aircrafts were sighted on multiple occasions Wednesday in the south of the country. According to the report, which was based on a press statement by the Lebanese army, the airplanes entered Lebanese airspace at around 1:40 P.M. and circled over various places before leaving over the Mediterranean Sea near Tripoli and Naqoura at 5 P.M." From Haaretz: A Facebook page run by Syrian rebels claimed that the strike occurred at around 7 P.M. According to the page, a missile was fired from the sea and struck the Syrian base but did not result in any casualties. Israeli sources declined to comment on the reports.   Last week, Kuwaiti newspaper Al Jarida reported that Israeli fighter planes had bombed a shipment of missiles in the border area between Lebanon and Syria. The report, which according to the paper was based on sources in Jerusalem, has no confirmation from any other source.   The source told the newspaper that the missiles that were destroyed were of an advanced model and were designated for Hezbollah, as part of the strengthening of the organization's missile system. It is not clear whether the attack was carried out on Lebanese territory or on Syrian territory.   Israel refused to comment officially on the publication in the Kuwaiti newspaper, whose reliability is questionable. While hardly surprising if Israel is confirmed as the offending party, a far bigger question is what are next steps: because unlike before, Putin has now very officially made Syria his protectorate, even as the US protective influence over both Syria and the region in general was waned substantially in the past few months. But perhaps more surprising is the desperation with which Israel is once again trying to destabilize the region. One thing that is clear: while such provocative actions may have yielded results as recently as half a year ago, Israel will need to put far more energy into comparable actions in the future, whether they target Syria or Iran, as the public opinion's threshold for unwarranted Israel offensive action has dropped substantially since the bundled US foreign policy escapade in Syria which was an unmitigated disaster for the US-Saudi-Qatar-Israel axis.