Syria engages Israeli Aircraft

[Hawk MMS 0]

Syria Claims to Have Fired on Israeli Aircraft Violating Its Airspace

Thursday , September 06, 2007

DAMASCUS, Syria —

Syrian air defenses opened fire on Israeli aircraft after they violated Syrian airspace overnight Thursday, a Syrian military spokesman said, in a new development in cross-border tensions that have brewed for months.

 

The Israelis flew east from the Mediterranean Sea over the northern part of the country, broke the sound barrier and "dropped ammunition" over deserted areas of Syria overnight, the spokesman was quoted as saying by the official Syrian Arab News Agency.

 

"Air defense units confronted them and forced them to leave after they dropped some ammunition in deserted areas without causing any human or material damage," the spokesman said.

 

Israel's army spokesman declined to comment, saying under customary condition of anonymity, "We cannot discuss military operations."

 

Witnesses said the incident occurred in the al-Abyad area near Syria's northeast border with Turkey.

 

The Syrians did not say the aircraft struck targets, and it was not clear what the spokesman meant by dropping ammunition. Warplanes sometimes drop extra fuel tanks to make the aircraft lighter and easier to maneuver.

 

Syrian Cabinet Minister Buthaina Shaaban, speaking on Al-Jazeera television's English service, would not confirm that Israel had attacked Syria, but did say the aircraft violated the country's airspace.

 

"We are a sovereign country. They cannot do that," said Shaaban.

 

The Syrian military spokesman did not specify whether the military used surface-to-air missiles or anti-aircraft artillery when confronting the aircraft.

 

"We warn the Israeli enemy government against this flagrant aggressive act, and retain the right to respond in an appropriate way," the Syrian spokesman said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

 

Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said the government was "seriously studying the nature of the response," but refused to indicate in an interview with Al-Jazeera television whether the reaction would be on the military or diplomatic level. He would not give any more details about the incident, but said it proved Israel's policies are based on hostility.

 

"Israel in fact does not want peace," said Bilal. "It cannot survive without aggression, treachery and military messages."

 

He said recent U.S. aid of US$30 billion over 10 years to Israel encouraged its government to "such arrogance that it delivered this morning message."

 

Israeli defense officials have been concerned about an outbreak of hostilities, and had sent messages recently that the country is not interested in going to war, Israeli officials said.

 

Israel acknowledges flying over Lebanon routinely, but it is unclear how often its aircraft fly over Syria.

 

Israeli aircraft are believed to fly routine reconnaissance flights over the Golan Heights, in the south of the country, apparently to monitor Syrian army moves near the disputed territory. But the incident Thursday was reported over the other side of Syria, in the northeast near the Mediterranean.

 

Israeli counterterrorism expert Boaz Ganor said that if Thursday's overflight occurred, it's possible Israel was "collecting intelligence on long-range missiles" deployed by Syria in the north.

 

Imad Fawzi Shoaibi, a Syrian political analyst, speculated that Israel may have been probing Syria's new air defense systems provided by Russia, at a time when tension is running high between the two countries.

 

Syrian officials, including President Bashar Assad, have repeatedly warned Israel in recent weeks that the occupation of the Golan Heights "cannot last forever."

 

Concerns grew over the summer that tensions along the frontier could escalate into conflict, but both Syrian and Israeli officials publicly and repeatedly said they had no interest in war.

 

Thursday's incident could stoke the tensions again, however. Late last month, Israeli security officials said the army had determined that war with Syria, whose military had reduced its war readiness, was unlikely and Israel began rotating forces out of the Israeli-held Golan Heights.

 

Syria also is believed unhappy that other Arab countries are headed to a peace meeting in November at which the United States hopes for a high-profile meeting between the Palestinians and Israelis, and perhaps also with Saudi officials.

 

Syria has long disputed any notion that a comprehensive Arab peace deal can be reached unless it also involves some resolution of the Golan Heights, which it wants back in full.

 

At the beginning of last summer's war against Lebanon, Israeli warplanes buzzed the palace of Syrian President Bashar Assad in what analysts called a warning to Damascus. In June of the same year, they also flew over Assad's summer home in the coastal city of Latakia, after Syrian-backed Palestinian militants in Gaza captured a young Israeli soldier.

 

In October 2003, Israeli warplanes bombed a Palestinian guerrilla base near Damascus, the first airstrike since the 1973 war.

Edited September 6, 2007 by USMC Hawker

[Nesher 629]

yeah, loads of crap by the syrian's, wanting to flame the area

giving them a good reason to engage....

 

hope they will STFU and stay in thier side... not flaming the area more than it already is

[+Typhoid 231]

Wings over the Golan ........

 

[+suhsjake 11]

Or

 

Wings Over the Middle East.

[eraser_tr 29]

Nesher's sig says it all.

 

As a microcasm, I was the target of every disfunctional teenager when I was younger. Israel's responses to aggression are overblown and are often provocative towards neighbors. But you have to do that to survive, after a while of beating the s**t out of people who got a kick out of tormenting me( and they literally got one for it) People finally got the message and backed off. It's taking a lot longer with Israel's arab neighbors, but its how Israel has to act when everyone's out to get them.

[Nesher 629]

now published in an israeli news site

A Syrian officer from their intel core, ranked Captain, says after talking to his colleague in the station that picked up the aircrafts

he said to the officer they came from Turkey might be carrier based jets or from a base placed in Turkey...

he also said that they didn't drop any bombs... only disposeble fuel tanks

Edited September 8, 2007 by Nesher

[DWCAce 19]

Or

 

Wings Over the Middle East.

 

 

Already have one installed :)

[yalcin_42 0]

Any israel jets dodm't base on the Turkey. F-15I RA'ma dropped fuel tanks near in the Turkish borders...

[ezlead 42]

I would say their testing the Syrians response time and weapons.

The Russians are doing with their 'Bears'.

We do it all over the world with our aircraft,too.

Ex: Cuba,Korea,Turkey,etc.

[Nesher 629]

 

Assad for Peace with Israel as Damascus Calls Reserves

 

Syria was reportedly calling its reserve forces as its president Bashar Assad said he is working for peace with Israel, denying charges of channeling Iranian weapons to Lebanon's Hizbullah.

The Daily newspaper an-Nahar, in an un-attributed report, said Syria has "called to service part of its reserve force."

 

Meanwhile, Assad told CBS: "We call for peace talks. We had peace talks 15 years ago … We work for peace with Israel … Our land is occupied and we need peace to regain our land."

 

He denied charges that Syria was channeling Iranian weapons to Hizbullah, saying Damascus supports the party "politically because they have a just cause."

 

"We have not allowed Iran to provide Hizbullah with Weapons and missiles. Where is the evidence for such a charge?" Assad asked.

 

He said charges regarding Syria's involvement in smuggling weapons to Hizbullah in Lebanon "have been made for a year. Intelligence services, probably from all over the world, operate on the Lebanese side of the border with Syria and the Israelis fly over Lebanon … I told them provide us with a single evidence that we have sent one missile to Hizbullah. These are fake claims."

 

Syria, Assad said, supports Hizbullah politically.

 

"We do not provide anybody with safe haven. They have their safe haven among the Lebanese people. This is the source of their strength," Assad said.

 

"As for support, this depends on the kind of support. We have good relations (with Hizbullah) and we support herm politically because they have a just cause," he added.

 

Assad also denied that Damascus airport is being used by terrorists as a springboard to fight the U.S. forces in Iraq.

 

"They enter illegally across the border and we've managed to arrest them," Assad stressed. Asked to comment on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadenjad's call to wipe Israel off the Map, Assad said: "This is freedom of speech. Any person in the world has the right to express himself freely. This is just an expression."

 

http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/0/09B7C0FB72353A5EC22573510022A88C?OpenDocument

 

 

[viper_205 0]

Israel is violating all the time airspaces, thats nothing new! I remember my time as a UN soldier on the Golan Heighs Mount Herman!

Were get always reports about IAF jets flying in the Syrian airspace!! And the best thing was bombing a UN bunker with laser guided bomb

from a IAF F-16 couple UN soldiers died on this day so Ì`am glad to be home again!! Fact is there was no punishment for the pilot, when a

American pilot make`s a friendly fire on some ground forces he goes in the jail but not in the IAF!! lol

[+76.IAP-Blackbird 3,545]

What does Israel think?! That they are the US of the middle east?! Try this behavior in europe!

[Nesher 629]

viper, how do you know what the pilot got for that error?

it is a sad result that people die for no reason...

i'm sure that every pilot and every soldier making a mistake

and killing none related\civilians feels very bad about it

 

but when terrorists use women and children as human shield, that's not the pilots fault (no matter what's his nation)

[triplethr3at 0]

Agreed. You can't be biased against a nation thats only trying to deffend itself. If deffending itself means taking the offensive than so be it. Other countires like the U.S and France do it all the time but you dont see anyone complaining about them,

[JediMaster 451]

Assuming a pilot got no discplinary action because you're unaware of it doesn't seem logical to me. I think that for security reasons the IDFAF won't SAY who the pilot was or what action was taken, but I think they run too tight a ship to allow pilots to just blow things up haphazardly with no reaction.Not to say Israel has never done things it shouldn't have or might have done differently, what nation can say that? Some people however seem to demonize them for doing things other than "allow yourself to be walked on" though.

Agreed. You can't be biased against a nation thats only trying to deffend itself. If deffending itself means taking the offensive than so be it. Other countires like the U.S and France do it all the time but you dont see anyone complaining about them,

Wait, didn't France complain about the US doing it?

[Mannie 21]

What does Israel think?! That they are the US of the middle east?! Try this behavior in europe!

 

Tell me tell me something Blackbird ol' buddy.

I don't know where you are from.

But what would the US or any other country for that metter do if one of its cities was rocketed for 7 years on a daily bases?

What would the US do if it suspected Canada or Mexico or some other country in south america got a claim or hold on nuclear weapons, if those countries where offensive to the US ?

Would you sit back and watch the birds singing ?

 

Think about it.

[eraser_tr 29]

Mannie.B has it right. We actually launch full scale wars on suspicion of such. If for example, Cuba was lobbing missiles across the sea into Miami, there wouldn't be an island 90 miles south of florida for long afterwards. Didn't we almost start World War III over something like that way back when?

[+76.IAP-Blackbird 3,545]

The middle east conflict is a thing you can avoid with diplomatics. One thing leads to another, there was no arabic country around israel what said "it`s ok you are here! <-- 1949-50 But now we live in another time, eg. the israelis don`t treat the palestin people right, they have no water, not enough to eat and no or only limited electricity. I was there for 2 month, spoke with the people and lived with them. They have nothing!!!! Really nothin and everything depends on Isreal and the other countries... this small area, this country is lamed by Israel and the result is the terror. But not by the goverment or the civilians, it needs some support to disturb those attacks. The people there have no future, not like us, we live in countries where the "war" is far behind our border, you wake up in teh moring and everything is like every day! The war is in the newspapers, the TV... for europeans and amerikans the same. For info I`m from czech republik and I lived in a Country which was threatened by other agressors! Cold war! You can`t imagine, you walk across the street, only to buy some milk or something else, a russian tank 50m away 10-15 soldiers patroling around with loaded Ak`s it`s not a movie .. it`s my past.. How do we say in our societey, when you want to be well treated than do it too! <-- hope I wrote it right. The troublemakers are not the soldiers or the civilians, the politics are....

[Mannie 21]

The middle east conflict is a thing you can avoid with diplomatics. One thing leads to another, there was no arabic country around israel what said "it`s ok you are here! <-- 1949-50 But now we live in another time, eg. the israelis don`t treat the palestin people right, they have no water, not enough to eat and no or only limited electricity. I was there for 2 month, spoke with the people and lived with them. They have nothing!!!! Really nothin and everything depends on Isreal and the other countries... this small area, this country is lamed by Israel and the result is the terror. But not by the goverment or the civilians, it needs some support to disturb those attacks. The people there have no future, not like us, we live in countries where the "war" is far behind our border, you wake up in teh moring and everything is like every day! The war is in the newspapers, the TV... for europeans and amerikans the same. For info I`m from czech republik and I lived in a Country which was threatened by other agressors! Cold war! You can`t imagine, you walk across the street, only to buy some milk or something else, a russian tank 50m away 10-15 soldiers patroling around with loaded Ak`s it`s not a movie .. it`s my past.. How do we say in our societey, when you want to be well treated than do it too! <-- hope I wrote it right. The troublemakers are not the soldiers or the civilians, the politics are....

 

Well Blackbird buddy, you should know better, comming from where you are.

If there is one nation I respect from the former eastern block, its the chech republic. (and the slovac.) for the spring of Prague.

 

Look man. This is a stranglehold we are in, and we israelis are one of the wrestlers. do you want me to take the other side? I can't do that.

This is no easy metter to resolve over night.

 

I wonder what was your opinion on the metter if you where staying a week in Sderot.

Try sending your beloved kids to school or to kindergarden at 8 oclock in the morning and get rocketed right there and then.

Don't you see? thay do it premeditatedly (on purpose)

There aim is to attack civilians and kill as many of them as thay can.

Knowing the western public opinion about innocents being hurt by militery action, thay take cover within those innocent civilians so to make it harder for us to pay them back for there agresions agains Isrealis.

We don't want to hurt no one how didn't do anything, but thay do.

Its a dirty war thay are fighting against us.

 

And you didn't say nothing about the sirian nuclear depot, or what Iran is up to.

Do we threaten them too?

Edited September 24, 2007 by MannieB.

[Nesher 629]

they have nothing? that's a load of cr*p excuse me...

but when politicians coming from egypt with millions of $$$ in suitecases, CASH!

when Arrafat that ugly SOBMF was in control he took millions into his own pocket instead of giving it to his people

when the terrorists buy weapons and explosives for a holly war

 

where do you live? on this planet?

 

they get everything we can possibly can give... even jobs in Israel!

even terrorists are treated in our Hospitals!

 

if they wanted better lives for themselvs thier government should stop terrorists acts against us

and start taking care of thier people!!!

 

just this satuarday bombing was prevented in Yom Kipur! before the next holiday (Sukot, this wednesday)....

Edited September 24, 2007 by Nesher

[+76.IAP-Blackbird 3,545]

We say in prague "That`s the crux of the matter!" I respect the israelis, and youre right, they are the wrestlers, I studiet your history and must say I was very impressed! But I condemn those actions, on both sides... but sometimes it seems that the idf has something like a a free entry card to their neighbors, military actions, airpatrols, airraids ...

 

The spring of prague, ... it was the point where the fear rises in the same numbers as hate rises against the soviets. When some terrorists menace my children, my own family and friends... it`s a damn situation we are in.

 

Now I life in germany and the attitude here in europe against those military actions is clear. Most people, even all are against american intervention in Iraq, Afghanistan and somewhere else, same with the intervention of israel in libanon. My cousin was in bairut on holiday and he said the city and the peoplo are impressiv. Most buildings damaged or destryed but the life goes on. But the goverment has no possibilities to get the control of their country. Cause the hisbollah works like samaritans, they build new houses for the civilians, they support them with money and everything the goverment is not abble to do... only to get their sympathie and loyal follower. And on the other side the terrorise israel and the goverment.

 

This all I can`t really understand, the only thing it`s all about..... to wield power, doesn`t matter if they are politics or terrorists, jews, christian or islam... My personal religion of choice is buddhism, to do good things without expect consideration. I can only shake my head.. we should all work together, if everyone could take care of only one friend or neighbor....

 

Good evening...

[JediMaster 451]

Some people don't understand violence and think you should never respond with violence, even if it's in response to violence upon yourself. That's a nice theory. However, that's not the world we live in.

 

If you don't respond, you are weak and invite more attacks. If you do respond, you are suddenly the violent aggressor because the first attack with violence can always be rationalized as the "only" method of retaliation for some other type of attack. It's all reprisals and retributions going back thousands of years and no one cares who started it anymore.

[+76.IAP-Blackbird 3,545]

It`s not about respond violence, it`s about what goes so horrible wrong that this situation become.... and how to solve it!!!

Edited September 25, 2007 by 76.IAP-Blackbird

[Mannie 21]

It`s not about respond violence, it`s about what goes so horrible wrong that this situation become.... and how to solve it!!!

 

Blackbird.

The conflict between the two sides in the middle east goes back, not 60 years,but thousands of years, back to the bibblical days.

what can you solve here?

Oh you might think that maybe the peace with egypt is a good example for the shape of things now days.

well, sorry to disappoint you.

thay don't like us anymore then thay did back in 48/56/67/73.

[+Typhoid 231]

Oh you might think that maybe the peace with egypt is a good example for the shape of things now days.

well, sorry to disappoint you.

thay don't like us anymore then thay did back in 48/56/67/73.

 

its called Peace through Deterrence (Strength).

 

an armed standoff may not be peace, only the lack of war. but it does work. for awhile......