SAMIA NAKHOUL, Beirut | Tuesday
ISRAEL has sparked further fears of a regional war in the Middle East after its airforce knocked out a Syrian radar base in Lebanon, killing three soldiers and prompting Damascus to put its 35_000 troops in the country on high alert.
The attack, 35km east of Beirut in the early hours of Monday, raised the military stakes in the Middle East and brought a confrontation with Syria closer.
It was the most serious attack on Syrian forces in Lebanon since Israel’s invasion of its northern neighbour in 1982.
Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara said in Moscow the Israeli government had committed a ”grave error” and would ”receive the appropriate response at the appropriate time”.
He said the Israeli air strike was an attempt to ”kill the Middle East peace process in the same way as they are killing Palestinian children.
A Syrian official said one Syrian soldier was killed and four were wounded in the attack, which Israel said was in retaliation for the killing of an Israeli soldier on Saturday in a Hizbollah rocket attack in the disputed Shebaa Farms area where the borders of Lebanon, Syria and Israel meet.
Hizbollah, the guerrilla group backed by Syria and Iran, pledged to turn Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s dream of security into ”a nightmare”.
Monday’s strike revived memories of Sharon’s role in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, when as defence minister he planned a push deep into the country that brought Israeli forces into confrontation with Syrian troops stationed there.
The Israeli air strike sparked wide condemnation.
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said the raid ”reveals the blood-coloured policies which Sharon has adopted since he came to power… ” A presidency statement quoted him as saying ”these policies will only lead to comprehensive confrontation”.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said ”this is a dangerous escalation that drags the whole region into a very critical, bad and grave situation”.
Egypt condemned Israel’s aggression as ”an incursion against a sovereign state”. The United States and Russia called on all sides in the Middle East to exercise restraint. – Reuters