Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Friday 11 May 2018
Israel, Iran engage in most serious confrontation in Syria

By ZEINA KARAM and ARON both sides appeared to sig- Israel said among the tar-
HELLER nal they wanted the con- gets were weapons stor-
Associated Press frontation to remain con- age, logistics sites and in-
BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli forces tained, at least for now. telligence centers used by
unleashed a heavy bom- Israel, however, has been elite Iranian forces in Syria.
bardment against Iranian emboldened by President It also said it destroyed sev-
military installations in Syria Donald Trump’s withdrawal eral Syrian air-defense sys-
on Thursday in what Israel from the Iran nuclear deal tems after coming under
called retaliation for an Ira- earlier this week, and the heavy fire and that none of
nian rocket barrage on its latest escalation seemed its warplanes were hit.
positions in the occupied to signal a potentially co- The Syrian military acknowl-
Golan Heights, the most se- ordinated surge in military edged that the strikes de-
rious military confrontation activity targeting Iran. stroyed a radar station and
between the two bitter en- The Israeli military said Thurs- an ammunition warehouse,
emies to date. day it hit nearly all of Iran’s and damaged a number
The two rivals have long In this photo released Thursday, May 10, 2018, by the Syrian military installations in Syria of air defense units.
fought each other through official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad speaks in response to the overnight It said three people were
proxies, and with the new during an interview with the Greek Kathimerini newspaper, in Iranian rocket barrage that killed and two were
exchange each seemed to Damascus, Syria. targeted Israeli front-line wounded.
be sending a warning that Associated Press military positions in the Go- The Britain-based Syr-
a direct clash between warned. war between Iran and Is- lan Heights, a strategic pla- ian Observatory for Human
them could swiftly esca- The scope of the attacks — rael in Syria, a conflict that teau that Israel captured in Rights, which closely moni-
late. which Israel called its larg- could potentially drag the the 1967 Middle East war. It tors the civil war through
“If we get rain, they’ll get est in Syria since the 1973 militant Hezbollah and Leb- was the first time Israel has sources inside Syria, said 23
a flood,” Israeli Defense Mideast war — raised the anon into the mix with dev- directly accused Iran of fir- fighters, including five Syr-
Minister Avigdor Lieberman specter of a full-fledged astating effects, although ing toward Israeli territory. ian soldiers, were killed. It
Iranian media described was not immediately clear
the Israeli attack as “un- if any Iranians were among
precedented,” but there the dead.
was no official Iranian com- The White House swiftly
ment on Israel’s claims. condemned Iran’s “pro-
Iran has vowed to retali- vocative rocket attacks
ate for repeated Israeli air- from Syria against Israeli
strikes targeting its forces citizens” and expressed
in Syria. But it seemed to strong support for “Israel’s
carefully calibrate its re- right to act in self-defense,”
sponse by targeting the while Russia said the Israeli
Golan Heights, which Israel strikes marked a dangerous
annexed in 1981 in a move escalation and urged both
that is not internationally Israel and Iran to avoid pro-
recognized, instead of strik- voking each other.
ing Israel proper. In a statement, White
Tehran is wary of a wider House press secretary
military conflagration with Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Israel that could jeopardize said “the Iranian regime’s
its military achievements deployment into Syria of
in Syria at a time when it is offensive rocket and mis-
trying to salvage the inter- sile systems aimed at Israel
national nuclear deal and is an unacceptable and
may be limited in its ability highly dangerous develop-
to strike back. ment for the entire Middle
The recent clashes reveal East.”
the difficulty both sides But in the past few weeks,
face in dealing with an Israel has shifted to a more
unprecedented situation, direct and public confron-
said Jean-Pierre Filiu, a pro- tation with Iran, striking at
fessor of Middle East studies Iranian bases, weapons
at Sciences Po, Paris School depots and rocket launch-
of International Affairs. ers across Syria, and killing
The clashes will eventu- Iranian troops. Israel ac-
ally likely lead not to fur- cuses Tehran of seeking to
ther escalation, but to the establish a foothold on its
“consolidation of new ‘red doorstep, something it has
lines’ tacitly endorsed by vowed never to allow.
Israel and Iran,” he said in Reflecting the scope of the
an analysis written for the pre-dawn attack, Russia’s
Carnegie Middle East Cen- military said 28 Israeli jets
ter. were involved, striking Irani-
The extent of the damage an and government sites in
inflicted by the Israeli air- Syria with 70 missiles. It said
strikes was not immediately half the missiles were shot
clear. down.q