Israeli Attack on Syria in March Targeted Missiles for Hezbollah

Air Force: Around 100 Missiles Destroyed

Israel attacks Syria pretty often, but rarely offers any public comment on exactly what they did or why. Their mid-March attack, which saw Syria fire anti-aircraft missiles at attacking warplanes and led Israel to issue very serious threats of a war if Syria continued to resist, was already a rarity.

The Israeli Air Force is now commenting publicly on the matter, saying the attack targeted unspecified Syrian missiles intended to be delivered to Hezbollah. They estimated that “around 100 Syrian missiles” were destroyed, and said they had carried out similar attacks in the past.

At the time, the incident was a very big deal, with the Syrian government seeking support from Russia to prevent future Israeli attacks of such a level. There were talks of Israel and Russia having some diplomatic discussions over the matter, and summoning of ambassadors over it.

This naturally largely fell by the wayside after the US attacked a Syrian military base a few weeks later, and there became growing concern that the US and Russia could quickly end up at war with one another. Israel’s confirmation of that attack comes just days after reports of another Israeli attack on a military base, which Israel has not commented on.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.