This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/05/israel-troops-shot-hezbollah-bomb-syrian-golan-heights

The article has changed 8 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 3 Version 4
Israeli forces seize Iranian rockets 'destined for Gaza' in Red Sea raid Israeli forces seize Iranian rockets 'destined for Gaza' in Red Sea raid
(about 3 hours later)
Israeli naval forces have raided a ship in the Red Sea and seized dozens of advanced rockets from Iran that they claim were destined for Palestinian militants in Gaza. Israeli naval forces have raided an Iranian freighter in the Red Sea and seized dozens of missiles that were allegedly destined for Palestinian militants in the Gaza strip.
The weapons are believed to have originated in Syria. Israeli officials say they were flown from Damascus to Tehran, then shipped from the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, to the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr, where they disguised among bags of cement.
Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli army, said the Iranian shipment had been seized at the end of a "complex, covert intelligence-led mission" that had started when the missiles began their journey at Damascus international airport several months ago.Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli army, said the Iranian shipment had been seized at the end of a "complex, covert intelligence-led mission" that had started when the missiles began their journey at Damascus international airport several months ago.
"Scores" of Syrian-made M320 surface-to-surface rockets had been seized on their way to Palestinian groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, he said. With a range of over 100 miles, these could hit targets from Nahariya in northern Israel to Eilat in the far south, where the Panamian-flagged ship is expected to dock in two days' time. "Millions of Israelis would have been at the mercy of terrorists," he added. Lerner said "scores" of Syrian-made M320 surface-to-surface rockets had been seized. With a range of over 100 miles, these could hit targets from Nahariya in northern Israel to Eilat in the far south, where the freighter is expected to dock on Friday, escorted by warships. "Millions of Israelis would have been at the mercy of terrorists," he said.
The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, currently in America having met the US president, Barack Obama, to discuss the peace process with the Palestinians, spoke of the incident in terms of a wider Iranian threat to global security. The Panamanian registered vessel, KLOS-C, was boarded by naval special forces on Tuesday night, shortly before it entered Sudanese waters.
"At a time when it is talking to the major powers, Iran smiles and says all sorts of nice things. At the same Iran is sending deadly weapons to terrorist organisations and is doing so via a ramified network of secret operations in order to send rockets, missiles and other deadly weapons that will be used to harm innocent citizens," Netanyahu said. 17 crew members co-operated when their ship was intercepted 1,000 miles south of the Eilat in international waters between Eritrea and Sudan, Lerner said. The operation was codenamed Full Disclosure.
"This is the true Iran and this state cannot possess nuclear weapons. We will continue to do whatever is necessary in order to defend Israel's citizens." Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon claimed that the missiles would have been transferred by land across Sudan, into the Sinai desert and onwards to Gaza.
There was no immediate reaction from Tehran.
Lerner said 17 crew members had co-operated when their ship was intercepted 1,000 miles south of the Israeli port of Eilat in international waters between Eritrea and Sudan in the early hours of the morning. The operation was codenamed Full Disclosure. Israeli missile boats and naval commandos had taken part.
The missiles had been loaded on to a plane in Damascus, flown to Tehran and shipped by land to the Gulf port of Bandar Abbas, he said. From there they went to Umm Qasr in southern Iraq and from there headed to the Red Sea and Port Sudan. Intelligence on who was to receive the weapons in Gaza was "still a bit preliminary".
"It is a huge shipment of weapons that could have inflicted great damage on the state of Israel," Lerner said. "That's why we intercepted it. We have had it under our view since the loading in Damascus airport several months ago.""It is a huge shipment of weapons that could have inflicted great damage on the state of Israel," Lerner said. "That's why we intercepted it. We have had it under our view since the loading in Damascus airport several months ago."
In a separate incident on its border with Syria on Wednesday, Israeli troops shot two Hezbollah fighters who tried to plant a bomb near the fence between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syrian-held territory. Video released by the Israeli Defence Force showed uniformed men inspecting large green rockets in green wooden boxes. Packets of cement with Iranian markings were also visible. Websites that monitor international shipping show that the KLOS-C was last at port in Umm Qasr and was last known to be in the Gulf of Oman.
An army spokeswoman said Israeli intelligence had identified the men as members of Hezbollah, a Lebanese militia helping the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, fight a civil war. She had no immediate word on their condition. Iran's armed forced has denied Israeli claims as "baseless and lie", according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency which is affiliated to the revolutionary guards.
Hezbollah – an Iranian-backed Shia group whose politicians sit in the Beirut government – fought Israel to a standstill in the 2006 Lebanon war. Both sides have built up strength since but have largely avoided direct confrontation. The high seas interception is the fourth of its kind by Israel in the past 12 years and the first since the start of the Syrian civil war three years ago. It comes after a spate of air attacks on weapons warehouses and arms convoys in the past 18 months that officials in Tel Aviv had hinted were destined for Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Last week, however, Hezbollah accused Israel of bombing one of its bases near the Lebanon-Syria border and threatened to retaliate. It also follows a visit this week by Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington, where the Israeli Premier used a meeting with Barack Obama, and a stump speech to the powerful Jewish lobby AIPAC to underscore his reservations about a nuclear deal with Iran.
Israel did not confirm carrying out the air strike, in keeping with its official silence on at least three such attacks in the last year targeting suspected Hezbollah-bound weapons convoys from Syria. "At a time when it is talking to the major powers, Iran smiles and says all sorts of nice things," Netanyahu said on Wednesday. "The same Iran is sending deadly weapons to terrorist organizations … that will be used to harm innocent citizens. This is the true Iran and this state cannot possess nuclear weapons."
It said it would hold Beirut responsible for any Hezbollah reprisals from Lebanese turf. Israeli warnings about Iran have intensified since an interim deal was struck late last year with President Hassan Rouhani to ease sanctions against Tehran if the Islamic Republic scales back its nuclear program. The US and European states say they will negotiate a final deal if Iran gives up its enrichment program and stops work on a heavy water reactor, both of which are key components used to make nuclear weapons.
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and annexed it in a move not recognised internationally. The strategic plateau has seen occasional spillover violence from the Syrian civil war, and Israel has accused Hezbollah of setting up positions on the other side of the boundary fence. After more than 40 years of cold truce between Tel Aviv and Damascus, the Golan Heights border between the two countries is increasingly becoming a battle zone. Israeli officials claim tank fire killed two Hezbollah members trying to plant a bomb on the border fence early Wednesday. Israel believes that Syria is stepping up efforts to move strategic weapons, such as anti-ship and anti-aircraft weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon, where they pose a potent threat to its military and citizens. Israeli jets attacked a crossing point between Syria and Lebanon's Bekaa Valley last week that officials had suggested was being used at the time to move advanced missiles to Hezbollah.
Israeli jets have also struck Damascus three times since last January, levelling a base of the Fourth Division near Damascus, destroying a convoy outside a scientific institute and striking an unknown target near the Lebanese border.
Large explosions attributed to the Israeli air force have also taken place in warehouses in the coastal cities of Tartous and Latakia, both strongholds of the regime military.
In addition, Israeli jets twice bombed factories allegedly used to store Iranian supplied weapons in 2009 and hit a military facility south of Khartoum in 2011. Two overland convoys in western Sudan were also hit by an airstrike in 2011.
The regular appearance of Israeli jets above Syria and Lebanon are yet to attract direct retaliation from Hezbollah, which has not yet responded to Wednesday's apparent Golan Heights clash and played down last week's strike on the Syrian border.
Hezbollah is heavily engaged in Syria, with its forces playing a lead role in attacking rebel and jihadist groups in the Qalamoun mountains, near the strategically important Lebanese border town of Arsal. Both the Shia militia and its main patron, Iran, remain heavily invested in ensuring that the regime of Bashar al-Assad prevails in the war which next week will enter a fourth year, with little sign of slowing down.
Assad has increasingly relied on his key allies, along with Russia, as the war has gathered steam. Until the start of the war, which has pitched an almost exclusively Sunni opposition against an Allawite and Shia Islamic alliance, Assad had been regarded by Palestinians as an essential champion of their cause.
However, the relationship between the regime and Palestinian factions - particularly Hamas - had broken down by the end of 2012, by which time Hamas leader Khaled Mashal and his politburo had left Damascus for Doha, and Palestinian refugee camps in the capital were under attack by regime forces.
The break between Hamas and the Assad regime also caused a freeze in relations between the militant Islamic rulers of Gaza and Iran, which had in the past supplied rockets and other munitions to the group. After enjoying close ties with former Egyptian president, Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's new rulers have effectively sealed off Gaza in recent months, stopping all arms transfers while they fight a jihadist insurgency in the Sinai.