Taking A Swing At It

As President Obama prepares to host Mideast peace negotiations later this week in Washington, a Kuwaiti newspaper is reporting that an Israeli attack on Hezbollah targets in Syria is imminent.

Israel is planning to attack Hezbollah arms depots and weapons manufacturing plants in Syria, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai reported on Saturday.

The report is based on Western sources who asserted that Israel has increased its military force level along the northern border in the Golan Heights and Mount Dov areas.

The report cited European sources who claimed that recent Israeli unmanned aerial drone flights over Lebanon and Syria signal Israel's intentions to carry out operations in the area. 

According to the report, Israel plans to attack Hezbollah weapons depots, including ones deep inside Syria that store long-range rockets.

The Al Rai report said that the situation on the Israel-Syria border is tense and that Syria could respond immediately to any Israeli attack and not demonstrate the restraint that it did after the Israeli Air Force bombed a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria in the fall of 2007.

According to the report, Syria's military is on high alert and is strengthening its anti-aircraft defenses along the border with Israel and at strategic sites within Syria. 

Needless to say, an Israeli attack on Syria right now would definitely complicate things in this week's peace talks. It could very well be complete hogwash too meant to scuttle the talks before they start, but certainly US intel would be able to determine any Israeli troop buildup and would be able to corroborate these drone flight reports.

Still, we'll see how this shakes out.