Israeli Media Confirms IAF Struck Near Euphrates (last week)

IsraelNN ^

[maquiladora]

(IsraelNN.com) Israeli TV Channel 1 said Tuesday that the IDF "definitely carried out an attack" against Syria last Thursday. The attack was meaningful, the channel's military affairs reporter said, and was probably carried out against a large and important target that justified taking this kind of extreme action at such a sensitive time in Israeli-Syrian relations.

The target hit was in the Deir Ez-Zour region in eastern Syria, near the Euphrates river.

The attack was carried out by Israel Air Force (IAF) F-15i jets (The 'i' stands for 'Israel') referred to in Hebrew as Ra'am, or 'thunder.' Anti-aircraft fire from the ground was inefficient, Channel 1 said.

[maquiladora]

Map showing "Deir Ezzor" where the mystery target was attacked.

[lexington minuteman 1775]

Were they digging up Saddams WMD’s to use against Israel?

[SoKatt]

Good for them.

[lormand]

Didn't Iran's nut-men-a-job say that if Israel did something like this to Syria then Iran would defend her?

I guess it was all hot gas.

[Robe]

MoreHERE

[BOBTHENAILER]

The F-15i's advanced systems include an APG-70 radar with terrain mapping capability which makes it possible to locate targets that are otherwise very hard to find - i.e. missile batteries, tanks and structures - even under complete fog cover, heavy rain or moonless nights.

And to locate Saddam's WMD's, buried there.

[Sax]

Syria denies a report by CNN that IDF ground troops also participated in the operation. "This is absolutely not true,"

Forward Observers don't like to be found. That's their job.

[Red Badger]

Sending a message to Iran.....................via air mail..........

[edcoil]

I’ll bump it and someone ping me when they find out what was hit.

[Uncle Miltie]

I see two big smudges here, with North West to South East oriented explosion patterns. Testing to see if this link works:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=damascus,+syria&ie=UTF8&ll=35.380933,40.228329&spn=0.052555,0.075274&t=h&z=14&om=1

[Robe]

The above report states in the picture caption that...
The IAF fired at ground targets when they were discovered..
Scratch 4 Brand New Russian SAM sites

[Red Badger]

Must have been something really important for Israel to do it and Syria to be so non-committal about it..............

[Uncle Miltie]

Link works. Any photo recon guys out there?

[LasVegasMac]

They flew most of the way through the country before Syria noticed.

....giggle.....

[Ancesthntr]

Must have been something really important for Israel to do it ...

Yup; and I'm glad they did it, too. I wonder if FoOlmert authorized it, or if Barak is playing footsie behind his back (the same way Peres negotiated Oslo behind Rabin's back)?

...and Syria to be so non-committal about it...

Most countries don't usually advertise their utterly abject failure to be able to defend their sovereign territory, especially when they have the latest Russkie missiles to help out.

[Normal4me]

It was call to prayer time and no one was looking up. lol

[mojito]

Initial reports of this strike seemed to indicate that the targets were weapons being smuggled into Lebanon. An attack this deep in eastern Syria makes that scenario most unlikely. Quite an impressive achievement, especially if they got ground forces in and out.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

CNN reported Tuesday that the Israeli airstrike inside Syria last week may have been targeting weapons that were earmarked for Hizbullah fighters, citing "sources in the region and in the United States."

The sources told CNN that the military operation "may have also involved Israeli ground forces"

**************************

The air strike "left a big hole in the desert" in Syria.
o directed the air strike which "left a big hole in the desert" in Syria.

Israeli government happy
"The Israeli government is very happy with the success of the operation," the sources told CNN. Israeli reporters noted that IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi was smiling from ear to ear at a function held on the evening after the attack and saw this as evidence that the attack had gone well.

Sources in the U.S. government and military said that "they are happy to have Israel carry the message to both Syria and Iran that [Israel] can get in and out and strike when necessary."

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ARGH>>>>messed up the HTML somehow.....sorry!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

We have this report also:

U.S. officials begin crafting Iran Bomb plan
Fox News ^ | Sept 11, 2007 | James Rosen