JERUSALEM - Israeli warplanes attacked a Syrian radar station in Lebanon early today in retaliation for recent Hezbollah guerrilla assaults that killed an Israeli soldier Saturday near the Golan Heights.
Reports from Beirut said as many as three Syrian soldiers had been killed and at least five were wounded. While Damascus was officially silent, Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri denounced the raid as "a grave aggression on Lebanon and Syria."
This marked the first time Israel had directly attacked a Syrian target since 1996, and it added a new element of danger to an already tense region.
Israel holds Syria responsible for the Hezbollah guerrillas who have periodically ambushed Israeli troops on the Israel-Lebanon border in the 11 months since Israel withdrew its forces from southern Lebanon. During this period, three Israeli soldiers have been killed and three others have been kidnapped.
Syria maintains a force of 35,000 troops in Lebanon and exercises tight political control over the country.
In a statement, the Israeli government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said continued Hezbollah "terror" is "done with the knowledge and patronage of Syria." The government said it had exercised restraint after previous guerrilla attacks, but Syria "didn't lift a finger" to rein in the guerrillas.
After ending its 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon in May, Israel threatened to strike at Syrian targets in Lebanon if Hezbollah attacks resumed. But until now Israel hadn't acted on the threat.
Today's airstrike damaged a Syrian radar station at Dahr el Baidar, about 12 miles east of Beirut, high on the hills overlooking the Bekaa Valley, the Israeli army said. The site is on the main Beirut-Damascus highway.
Striking a Syrian target so close to Lebanon's capital, Israel was sending a powerful warning to both countries to restrain the Hezbollah fighters. Syria has long considered Hezbollah useful in maintaining pressure on Israel to abandon the Golan Heights, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
Syrian President Bashar el Assad, in office less than a year, has emerged as one of the Arab world's angriest critics of Israel, denouncing its society as even more racist than that of the Nazis. Assad is also patching up relations with Palestinians fighting to end Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
The flare-up comes during a period of brewing tension within Lebanon over the presence of Syrian forces and over Hezbollah's continuing war against Israel.
