| U.S. Watched Israeli Raid, Provided Advice | |
There are new details of Israeli's attack on Syria that suggests the U.S. had knowledge of the event and perhaps some back-channel involvement. The Pentagon was monitoring the electronic emissions coming from Syria during Israel's Sept. 6 attack and, while there was no active Pentagon engagement in the operation to destroy a nuclear reactor, there was advice provided, say military and aerospace industry officials.
The first event in the raid involved slipping Israel's strike aircraft over the border into Syria without alerting the air defenses. The actual target, a nuclear reactor, was at Dayr az-Zawr. But the main attack was preceded by an engagement with a single Syrian radar site at Tall al-Abuad near the Turkish border. It was struck with a combination of electronic attack and precision bombs to allow the Israeli force to enter and exit Syrian airspace unobserved.
Subsequently the whole Syrian radar system went off the air for a period of time that included the raid, say U.S. intelligence analysts. However, there was "No U.S. active engagement other than consulting on potential target vulnerabilities," says a U.S. electronic warfare specialist. Elements of the attack included some brute force jamming, which is still an important element of attacking air defenses, U.S. analysts say. Also, Syrian air defenses are still centralized and dependent on dedicated HF and VHF communications networks which made them vulnerable.
The analysts don't believe that any part of Syria's electrical grid was shut down. They do contend that network penetration involved both remote air-to-ground electronic attack and penetration through computer-to-computer links. "There also were some higher-level, non-tactical penetrations, either direct or as diversions and spoofs of the Syrian command and control capability, done through network attack," says a U.S. intelligence specialist.
With reporting by Robert Wall, both in Tel Aviv.
Photo Credit: USAF
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