Jerusalem Post

12 Tammuz 5761 17:28Tuesday July 3, 2001

Arrow radar tracks Syrian Scud launch By David Rudge

TEL AVIV (July 3) - The Arrow anti-missile defense system's radar tracked the flight path of a Syrian Scud missile from the moment it was launched on Sunday morning until it landed some 300 kilometers away in the desert of southern Syria, the IDF revealed yesterday.

The IDF Spokesman said the radar equipment, known as "Oren Yaruk," picked up the launch of the Scud in the Haleb region, in northern Syria, and monitored its path until it hit the ground.

The radar system, which has been operational for a year, apparently proved its worth during what was assumed to be a test flight of the Scud missile by the Syrians.

The Syrian defense establishment is known to have invested large sums of money, time, and effort into building up an arsenal of ballistic missiles with the kind of ranges capable of hitting anywhere in Israel.

According to foreign media reports, Syria has also developed non-conventional weapons, primarily chemical and biological, which can be put in the warheads of the missiles.

The announcement of the successful tracking by the Oren Yaruk radar, which is an integral part of the Arrow's anti-missile defense system, comes at a time of heightened tension in the region generally and along Israel's northern border in particular.

IAF warplanes on Sunday struck at a Syrian Army radar station in the central part of Lebanon's Bekaa Valley in response to Hizbullah's unprovoked mortar and anti-tank missiles attack on IDF outposts in the Mount Dov region on Friday in which a soldier was seriously wounded and another lightly hurt.

Hizbullah retaliated for the IAF strike, in which three Syrian soldiers and one from the Lebanese army were wounded, by blasting several IDF positions in the Mount Dov region on Sunday, provoking heavy counter fire, but without causing any casualties.

Since then there have been intensive diplomatic efforts by the US and Egypt in particular to try and calm the situation and prevent the kind of exchanges that could cause an escalation that might even snowball into regional confrontation.

Syria has said it reserves the right to defend itself and has accused the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of pushing the region to the brink of war.

This was the tone of editorials in two Syrian government newspapers yesterday Both Tishrin and Al-Ba'ath stated in editorials that Israel would be responsible for the consequences of its "policies of aggression."

Hizbullah, on the other hand, which is being supported by Syria and its puppet government in Lebanon, defended its actions in the face of criticism on the home front and especially from among the ranks of Lebanese civilians fed up with war who had been hoping for quiet to rebuild their country and its economy.

Hizbullah's leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah and his deputy Sheikh Naim Kassem said Hizbullah would continue its operations to liberate the Shaba farms district in the Mount Dov region.

Hizbullah is using Lebanon's claim to the land there as its pretext for continuing military operations against Israel even though the UN has recognized that Israel withdrew from south Lebanon last May in full compliance with Security Council resolution 425.

News agency reports from Lebanon said IAF warplanes broke the sound barriers over Beirut yesterday as tension in the region remained high. Israel maintains that Hizbullah was the first to violate internationally-recognized agreements and that Israel since had the right to take measures to protect itself in the face of the organization's continuing cross-border attacks and breaches of those accords.

-- Anonymous, July 03, 2001