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Report: Israel Hits Weapons Convoy on Syria-Lebanon Border

(Washington Post) Babak Dehghanpisheh and Joel Greenberg - Israeli aircraft fired at a truck convoy along the Lebanon-Syria border on Wednesday, a Western official said. A former Lebanese official said a missile from an unmanned aircraft struck a truck carrying weapons on the Syrian side of the border heading toward Lebanon. AP said Israel had been making plans in recent days to hit a shipment of anti-aircraft missiles from Syria to Hizbullah in Lebanon that included sophisticated, Russian-made SA-17 missiles. Giora Eiland, a former head of Israel's national security council, said the transfer to Hizbullah of weapons considered to be game-changers, such as the Russian anti-aircraft missiles or long-range Scud missiles, would be viewed with equal gravity. "These are no less troubling than chemical weapons," Eiland said. "They are more widespread and not as tightly controlled by the regime, so they can fall into the hands of Hizbullah." "We do not comment on reports of this kind," a spokeswoman for the Israeli army said Wednesday. Keeping silent about a military strike against such weapons had the advantage of not goading the other side to respond, Eiland said. "When you publicly announce that you attacked, you force the other side to react because it can't bear the humiliation."
2013-01-31 00:00:00
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