JERUSALEM — Israeli fighter jets flew into Syria on Sunday and bombed a suspected terrorist training camp, pushing Israel's fight to quell the Palestinian uprising beyond the boundaries of the Palestinian territories and sending waves of outrage throughout the region.
Israel struck Syrian territory in retaliation for a suicide attack that killed 19 people in a seaside restaurant hours earlier. Israel said it bombed an Islamic Jihad compound on the densely wooded site in El Saheb, about 14 miles northwest of Damascus, to "send a message" to unfriendly nations.
A lone man was reportedly injured, and there was some confusion over the target. Syrian officials insisted there was no camp there, only an ordinary run of civilian land, and Islamic Jihad denied training there.
"This is a very clear message both to Syria and to all those countries involved in the axis of terror directed against us," said Raanan Gissin, a senior advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "We will not tolerate that there will be sanctuary or immunity for anybody, regardless of geography. It's up to Syria whether Syria accepts the message and restrains its terror groups."
The predawn bombings, the first such strike in nearly three decades, unveiled a sharp shift in Israeli policy. After three years of battle in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel is now declaring the right to chase armed Palestinian factions onto their bases in foreign countries. It's a philosophy that echoes the U.S. doctrine that nations harboring terrorists are subject to attack.
It was the militant Islamic Jihad that sent a young lawyer to blow herself up in a crowded eatery Saturday and Syria was taken to task for aiding the group. Some Israeli officials described the air attack on Syria as self-defense.
"In the raid last night, Israel has upgraded its military reaction," said Israel Radio, citing military sources. "The raid is a strategic change for Israel, which will no longer contain the struggle and restrict it to the Palestinian Authority territory alone."
An infuriated Syria, at an emergency Sunday meeting of the U.N. Security Council, urged the council to condemn the attack. "Many people across the globe feel that Israel is above the law," said Fayssal Mekdad, Syria's United Nations representative.
While Syria is widely regarded as unlikely to respond with military force, a letter from the embattled state to the United Nations hinted otherwise. "Syria is not incapable of creating a resisting and deterring balance that forces Israel to review its actions," it said.
