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Syria Blames Israel for Fiery Attack in Damascus Syria Blames Israel for Fiery Attack in Damascus
(about 1 hour later)
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Four explosions just west of Damascus shook the ground across the Syrian capital early on Sunday, sending fiery mushroom-shaped clouds towering over the landmark Mount Qasioun and brightening the night sky in a demonstration of firepower more potent than anything the residents of the city, a government stronghold, have witnessed during more than two years of war. BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Syrian government publicly condemned Israel for a powerful air assault on military targets near Damascus early Sunday, saying it “opened the door to all possibilities,” as fear spread throughout the region that the country’s civil war could expand beyond its borders.
The Syrian government immediately blamed Israel for the explosions, whose power appeared to far outstrip that of any weapons in the rebels’ arsenals. Israeli officials refused to confirm that Israeli forces had carried out the strikes, which the Syrian deputy foreign minister, speaking on CNN, called “an act of war.” The attack, which sent brightly lighted columns of smoke and ash high into the night sky above the Syrian capital, struck several critical military facilities in some of the country’s most tightly secured and strategic areas, killing dozens of elite troops stationed near the presidential palace, a high-ranking Syrian military official said in an interview.
With much still unexplained about the effects and motivations of the attack, it rattled the region, which has lived in fear that the Syrian war will lead to a wider conflict. It was unclear whether Israel, if it carried out the strikes, sought to intervene in Syria’s civil war or was simply expanding its campaign to prevent the Syrian government from transferring weapons to Hezbollah, the militant Shiite organization in Lebanon that is Syria’s ally and one of Israel’s most dangerous enemies. Israel refused to confirm the attacks, the second in three days, and Israeli analysts said it was unlikely that Israel was seeking to intervene in the Syrian conflict. They said the attacks in all likelihood expanded and continued Israel’s campaign to prevent the Syrian government from transferring weapons to Hezbollah, the Shiite militia and political party in neighboring Lebanon that is one of Israel’s most dangerous foes.
The attacks could end up providing psychological and perhaps military assistance to the Syrian rebels, who over the last several weeks have faced losses in a series of government offensives around Damascus and the city of Homs to the north. For the rebels, any damage to crucial military structures from the attacks — said by opposition activists to have hit bases of elite troops as well as weapons stores — would be offset by political complications if the explosions are linked to Israel. Rebels, opposition activists and residents said the strikes hit bases of the elite Republican Guard and storehouses of long-range missiles, in addition to a military research center that American officials have called the country’s main chemical weapons facility.
Israel deployed two of its Iron Dome missile-defense batteries in northern cities, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu avoided any mention of the developments in Syria in his remarks at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday. But he delayed his scheduled departure to China for two hours so he could convene his security cabinet. An American official said a more limited strike early Friday at Damascus International Airport was also meant to destroy weapons being sent from Iran to Hezbollah.
The attack would be the third Israeli strike in Syria this year and the second in two days. An American official said a more limited strike early Friday at Damascus International Airport was meant to destroy weapons being sent from Iran to Hezbollah. That was also the goal of a similar Israeli strike in January. Concerns flared about whether Hezbollah might attack Israel in retaliation, possibly drawing Lebanon into the conflict. Israel deployed two of its Iron Dome missile-defense batteries in its northern cities. Iran’s IRNA news agency said Israel could expect a “crushing” retaliation from Syria or “the resistance,” meaning Hezbollah.
But the explosions that struck Damascus on Sunday, shaking the ground across the city, appeared to be of far greater magnitude and potentially broader political and military significance. Analysts said Syria, weakened by the conflict, and Hezbollah, overstretched as it commits more forces to support President Bashar al-Assad, were unlikely to act, but they cautioned that a miscalculation by either side that set off an escalation could not be ruled out. And Mr. Assad could choose to mount covert attacks on Israeli targets abroad, rather than engage its military directly.
The rebels’ Damascus Military Council quickly sought to capitalize on the blasts. The council issued a statement calling on all fighters in the area to work together, put aside rivalries and mount focused attacks on government forces that have so far kept a solid hold on the capital. One senior Israeli official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he did not think that Israel was entering a war with Syria and suggested that Syria was unlikely to respond. Mr. Assad “has his own problems,” the official noted. “He doesn’t need Israel in the mess.”
Still, military analysts said the attacks by themselves were not likely to tip the balance between the rebels and the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. But Louay Mekdad — a spokesman for the Supreme Military Council who is considered Washington’s best option to become a military ally among the rebels — discounted claims by some rebel groups that they would take advantage of the strikes to escalate their attacks on the government. In Washington, the reported Israeli attacks stoked debate about whether American-led airstrikes were the logical next step to cripple President Assad’s ability to counter the rebel forces or use chemical weapons. That was already being discussed in secret by the United States, Britain and France in the days leading to the Israeli strikes, according to American and foreign officials involved in the discussions, with a model being the opening days of the attacks on Libya that ultimately drove Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi from power.
Video posted online on Sunday showed multiple explosions in the area west of Damascus, which is home to an array of crucial military installations. According to residents in the area and Syrian opposition groups, the attacks not only struck bases of the army’s elite fighting units, but also a research center that American officials have said is the country’s main facility for the development of chemical weapons. Lawmakers from both parties urged President Obama to move toward arming the rebels. “The idea of getting weapons in — if we know the right people to get them — my guess is we will give them to them,” Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Not all of those assertions were confirmed by the Syrian government, which said only that the research center in Jamraya had been hit. The White House declined to say whether it believed Israel was responsible for the Damascus explosions, though other American officials said there was no plausible alternative, given the size and precision of the strikes. Josh Earnest, the deputy press secretary, echoed statements by Mr. Obama last week, saying “the Israelis are justifiably concerned about the threat posed by Hezbollah obtaining these advanced weapon systems.”
Hassan Husseini, 41, a Damascus resident reached by Skype, said he and his family heard three explosions that began around 2 a.m. The Syrian deputy foreign minister, speaking on CNN, called the strikes “an act of war.” But the decision to blame Israel so publicly presented Mr. Assad with an unsavory choice. He could retaliate against Israel and risk conflict with the region’s strongest military — an option analysts called unlikely. Or he could refrain, in which case he risks appearing further weakened and hypocritical to supporters and opponents alike, many of whom are united in their antipathy for Israel.
“Luckily we had the windows open at home or they would have been destroyed by the intensity and pressure of it,” he said, adding that he felt “the walls moving and the ground trembling beneath us.” “Why does the regime attack the rebels with Scuds and warplanes while it takes no action on the Israeli raids?” Basil, 35, who lives near the research center in Jamraya, asked as he and his wife swept broken glass from their house on Monday.
“The electricity and the lights went on and off several times for a few seconds, and then we started smelling burnt gunpowder,” he said. Noureddin, 50, a lawyer, lives in the Doumar Project neighborhood, where the blasts knocked kitchen crockery from shelves and drove residents into basements for shelter. He said the attack would anger members of Mr. Assad’s Alawite sect, who make up the bulk of the military elite and his strongest base of support, already frustrated with their mounting death toll.
Syrian state television said the explosions confirmed government contentions that the rebels are part of an American-Israeli conspiracy to topple Mr. Assad for his support of Palestinians and his opposition to Western policies in the Middle East. “Today, President Bashar al-Assad is a very hard position with his Alawite community,” he said. “Today, Israel kills the Alawite soldiers who are protecting
While being seen as allies of Israel could tarnish the rebels in Syrian eyes, the opposition could point to the strikes as proof of their government’s hypocrisy. A frequent refrain among fighters and activists has been that although the government’s security forces and military failed to prevent the Israeli strikes — and for that matter have not clashed with Israel since 1973 — they have killed tens of thousands of Syrians and jailed many more in order to hold onto power. At the military’s Tishreen Hospital, a doctor said that there were at least 100 dead soldiers and many dozens more wounded.
Some rebels say openly that they consider Mr. Assad a higher priority target than Israel, while making clear that they do not embrace Israel. The main exile Syrian opposition coalition walked that line carefully in a statement issued after the bombings, blaming the government for allowing attacks by “external occupying forces.” While much of the region debated the military and political impact, Damascus felt like a city on high alert.
“The regime has used its forces to suppress the popular demands of the people for change, weakening Syrian defense, and thus allowing external occupying forces to hit Syrian locations,” the statement said. “Israel’s actions, including its pre-emptive attacks to weaken Syrian defenses, demonstrate a fear of losing the years of peace that the Assad regime provided for Israel.” Hassan Husseini, 41, said At 4 a.m., two hours after the blasts moved h, he drove a friend home from his house in Malki, at the foot of Mount Qasioun, where in safer times Mr. Assad lived in an apartment with his family. He was still reeling from the blasts, he said: “The walls were moving and the ground was trembling under us.”
The conflict has taken on an increasingly sectarian cast, and some opposition fighters have said that for the Sunni-led rebellion, the greatest enemy is not Israel but Iran and Hezbollah, which are dominated by Shiites and are the closest allies of Mr. Assad’s government. In recent weeks, the Sunni fighters have increased their criticism of Shiites and Alawites, a related sect to which Mr. Assad belongs. Soldiers at the city’s ubiquitous checkpoints inspected his car unusually carefully, he said.
Government supporters have also portrayed the rebellion as driven by extremist Sunni ideologies like Wahhabism. The opposition has accused Alawite and Shiite militias of carrying out massacres of Sunnis, including in the last two weeks in the Damascus suburbs and in Baniyas, a mostly Sunni area in the largely Alawite coastal region. “There was tension,” he said. “You could sense the alertness in the houses and among people; everybody was awake.”
Iran’s defense minister, traveling inside the country with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, accused the United States of “giving the green light” for the airstrikes. The minister, General Ahmad Vahidi, told Iran’s semiofficial Fars News agency that is becoming “increasingly clear” to Iran that Israel and Syrian rebels are working together to bring down the Assad government. He saw people clustered at windows and on balconies. “Some lights were on,” he said, “but even when they were off I saw them moving behind windows like ghosts.”
“These attacks reveal the close relations between the mercenary terrorists and their supporters, the Zionist regime,” he said. While Mr. Vahidi did not elaborate, Iranian officials have often accused Syrian rebel forces of providing assistance and intelligence on the ground to pave the way for Israeli airstrikes. The military impact, though, was less clear.
In a sign of Iran’s resolve to help the Assad government, the commander of the Iran Army’s ground forces, General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, reiterated statements by Iranian officials that Iran was ready to provide military training to the Syrian Army. Within hours, the rebel Damascus Military Council declared that it would try to capitalize. The council issued a statement calling on all fighters in the area to work together, put aside rivalries and mount focused attacks on government forces.
“As a Muslim nation, we back Syria, and if there is need for training we will provide them with the training, but won’t have any active involvement in the operations,” he said in remarks reported by the state Islamic Republic News Agency. But Louay Mekdad, a spokesman for the Supreme Military Council, considered Washington’s best option for a military ally among the rebels, said the strike by itself would not present an opportunity to tip the balance..
While Israeli government and military officials refused to confirm or to take any responsibility for the strikes, one senior Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that he did not think that Israel was entering a war with Syria and suggested that Syria was unlikely to respond. The elite Republican Guard units hit, which the official said had been guarding weapons stockpiles, are currently believed to have little involvement in the fighting against Syria’s rebels, though they are a last-resort line of defense.
President Assad “has his own problems,” the official noted. “He doesn’t need Israel in the mess.” “Does this erode the regime’s long-term capability? Undoubtedly,” Emile Hokayem, an analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “Does this create a short-term opportunity for the opposition? It’s doubtful.”
Similarly, the official said he did not think that Hezbollah would respond. “Hezbollah, as far as understood, has no intention of opening a war in Israel,” the official said, adding that it was keeping its Iranian-supplied weapons for any attack by Israel or the United States. The Syrian military official said he believed that Israel and the rebels had collaborated in a plan for opposition forces to advance after the strikes hit elite forces in one of the few areas on the outskirts of Damascus where rebels have made few inroads. But Israeli analysts suggested that any deaths of Republican Guards, who were guarding weapons stockpiles, were likely incidental.
Israeli experts said Israel was only interested in protecting its immediate interests, and that the latest strikes appeared to have more to do with Israel’s cardinal standoff against Iran. Some analysts said Israel may have been sending a message to its main rival, Iran, that despite recent gains by Mr. Assad’s forces, the alliance between Iran, Syria and Hezbollah has waning power to check Israeli action.
“This shouldn’t be seen as Israel intervening on behalf of the rebels or against Bashar,” said Jonathan Spyer, a senior research fellow at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel. “This is an escalation in a conflict we know about, and that is the conflict between Israel and Iran, the long shadow war, as people call it. This is an incident in that war.” Syrian state television said the explosions confirmed what the government has been contending all along: that the rebels are part of an American-Israeli conspiracy to target Mr. Assad for his support of Palestinians and opposition to Western policies in the Middle East.
But, he said, “one has to ask oneself about Israel’s calculus.” But a longstanding refrain among fighters and activists has been that Mr. Assad’s anti-Israel stance was a sham. They note that while the government’s security forces and military failed to prevent the Israeli strikes — and for that matter have not clashed with Israel since 1973 — they have killed tens of thousands of Syrians and jailed many more in order to hold onto power.
“Obviously there is a risk in that at a certain point a response becomes more likely,” he added. Some rebels and activists say they consider Mr. Assad a far higher-priority target than Israel, though they still oppose it. The main exile Syrian opposition coalition walked that line carefully in a statement issued after the bombings, blaming the government for allowing attacks by “external occupying forces.”
Professor Moshe Maoz of the Hebrew University said that Iran was now the crucial actor in how the conflict unfolded. Also, as the conflict takes on an increasingly sectarian cast, some rebel fighters say that for the Sunni-dominated rebellion, the greatest enemy is not Israel but Shiite-dominated Iran and Hezbollah and the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiism.
“If Hezbollah gets a green light from Iran to retaliate, Israel won’t remain idle, and it could lead to regional war,” he said. “The decision is probably to be taken in Tehran.” Mr. Mekdad of the rebel military council said that the opposition had only one target: Mr. Assad’s government.
Israeli analysts said that Mr. Assad would be wary of retaliating against Israel, aware that Israel could strike back with far more firepower than the rebels in Syria might muster. At the same time, they said, Israel was taking a calculated risk because if strikes grow more frequent and stronger, the more likely it is that they will lead to a reaction. “The Assad regime has never focused on fighting the Israeli army; it’s focus has only been on oppressing the Syrian people,” he said. “From the start our goal has been to topple the regime and we will continue.”
“It is the kind of thing that you know how it begins, but not how it ends,” said Professor Eyal Zisser of Tel Aviv University said.

Reporting was contributed by an employee of The New York Times from Damascus, Syria, Hala Droubi from Dubai, Thomas Erdbrink from Tehran, Ben Hubbard from Cairo, Michael Schwirtz from New York and Hania Mourtada and Hwaida Saad from Beirut.

“Israel is still not involved in the war in Syria,” he added, “but it is getting closer.”

Anne Barnard reported from Beirut, and Jodi Rudoren and Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem. Contributing reporting were Thomas Erdbrink from Tehran, Ben Hubbard from Cairo, Michael Schwirtz from New York, Hania Mourtada and Hwaida Saad in Beirut, Hala Droubi in Dubai and an employee of The New York Times from Damascus.