Militants had abandoned Israel's Syrian target

Syrians were fixing shattered windows and doors and cleaning their homes today, a day after Israeli warplanes attacked and heavily damaged a nearby camp that was formerly run by Palestinian militants.

A resident of Al-Dreij said he went down to the targeted area hours after the attack and found parts of Russian-made automatic rifles, which he gathered and handed over to police. Al-Dreij is about 15 miles north-west of the Syrian capital of Damascus.

The heavily damaged camp, in the ravine of Ein Saheb, could be seen from Al-Dreij. Workers were clearing the rubble from what appeared to be a single storey house that was totally destroyed by Israeli rockets.

Metal parts and bricks shattered by the rocket attack lay on the hill around the damaged house. A damaged green water tank was seen next to a swimming pool half filled with dirty water.

Three other buildings in the ravine remained untouched.

Israel said it targeted an Islamic Jihad training base in retaliation for a deadly suicide bombing in Haifa on Saturday. But Islamic Jihad said it had no bases in Syria, and Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa said Israel hit a civilian target.

He accused Israel of “aggression” and warned that Syria was capable of a “deterring balance to force Israel to review” its action.

In Al-Dreij, a young man named Omar said he did not hear the warplanes but heard the “terrifying” sound of four explosions from his house some 500 yards from the camp.

“We felt that our house moved from its place,” said Omar as he fixed the damaged door of his house. “My father was sleeping in the garden that morning and saw the red flames of the explosions.”

Omar said the camp was known to be run by Palestinian militants in the past but for years it has been empty.

“We went down to the camp two hours after the attack and there was so much damage,” Omar said, adding that security agents questioned some villagers.

Residents in the area said that for the past decades the ravine of olive and fig groves has only been used by picnickers and walkers.

An official with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command said the camp was run by his groups militants for years but they abandoned it seven years ago. He refused to give a reason.

A PFLP-GC leader said a civilian guard was injured in the attack.

Syria’s state-run newspapers today gave equal coverage to the attack and the 30th anniversary of the last Syrian-Israeli war in 1973.

Al-Baath, the official newspaper of the ruling Baath Party, had two main headlines, one on the Security Council meeting and another on the October War, which it called “an immortal record of epics, heroic acts and sacrifices.”

Syria and Israel – fierce foes who remain technically at war – have fought three major conflicts, in 1948, 1967 and 1973. But since the last war, the border between them has been calm, as their conflict played out mainly in neighbouring Lebanon, where Syria holds sway and backs the anti-Israeli guerrilla movement Hezbollah.

Peace talks between Syria and Israel broke off in 2000 following disputes over the return of Syria’s Golan Heights, which Israel annexed in 1981.

The air onslaught was the first Israeli attack so deep into Syria in three decades.