Lebanon yesterday condemned the Israeli "aggression" after the fall of two reconnaissance planes in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Hezbollah stronghold, warning of the repercussions of this rare incident in recent years in the country on the stability of the region, hours after Israel launched strikes in Syria, which it said hit Iranian targets .
Two Israeli reconnaissance planes landed at dawn yesterday south of Beirut, and one of them after the explosion damaged the media center of Hezbollah.
This development came after months of high-profile warnings about any military escalation between Israel and Hezbollah, which is classified as a "terrorist organization" by Washington.
The Lebanese army said in a statement yesterday that «while two Israeli enemy reconnaissance aircraft violated Lebanese airspace, the first fell to the ground and the second exploded in the air causing damage limited to material».
Army units cordoned off the crash site, while «military police took over the incident under the supervision of the competent judiciary» according to the army.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun denounced yesterday the "blatant Israeli aggression" as "further evidence of Israel's aggressive intentions and its targeting of stability and peace in Lebanon and the region."
Prime Minister Saad Hariri, for his part in a statement, that «the new aggression is a threat to regional stability, and an attempt to push the situation towards more tension».
He said it was "an open assault on Lebanese sovereignty and a clear violation of resolution 1701", which established a cessation of hostilities between Lebanon and Israel after the July 2006 war.
Hariri, one of Hezbollah's most prominent political opponents, stressed that "the Lebanese government will assume its full responsibilities in this regard, ensuring that no hostile plans threaten security, stability and national sovereignty."
Lebanon said it would immediately file a complaint with the UN Security Council to condemn the "serious" Israeli violation of Lebanese sovereignty.
According to a statement, Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil instructed the country's representative to the United Nations to submit an immediate complaint to the Security Council. Israeli raids overnight near Damascus killed five fighters, the Syrian Observatory said.
A Syrian military source announced, according to the official news agency (SANA) «Our air defense media spotted hostile targets coming from over the Golan towards the perimeter of Damascus».
Israel quickly acknowledged the strikes, saying it had targeted "a number of targets and military installations of the Quds Force and Shiite militias" in the Aqraba area in southeastern Damascus, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran that it was not immune to strikes by his army.
The incident came hours after Israel launched strikes in Syria, which it said hit Iranian targets.