A top US general on Thursday supported the Israeli military’s claim that a Syrian anti-aircraft missile that triggered sirens near the Dimona nuclear reactor in southern Israel hours earlier was an errant missile that overflew its target.
The missile went “ballistic, literally, and followed a parabolic trajectory into Israel,” Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of CENTCOM which oversees the Middle East, told the US Senate Armed Services Committee.
The incident “reflects incompetence in Syrian air defense, where they were responding to Israeli strikes on targets in Syria. I do not believe it was an intentional attack but just rather [a] lack of capability,” he said.
The projectile, an SA-5 surface-to-air missile fired by Syrian forces against Israeli aircraft, failed to be intercepted by Israeli air defense systems. The Israel Defense Forces says it was investigating the matter.
IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Hidai Zilberman emphasized that the missile was errant and was not targeting the Dimona nuclear reactor.
Israel has been ramping up strikes in Syria in recent months, targeting Iranian sites in the war-torn country.
Israel responded to the missile by targeting Iranian militias some 25 miles northeast of Damascus, a Syrian military defector said.
According to Syria’s state news, Syrian air defenses intercepted an Israeli attack targeting suburbs surrounding Damascus. Four Syrian soldiers sustained injuries, the report said.
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