Syria complained to the United Nations about "aggression and violation of sovereignty" after Israeli warplanes reportedly conducted an airstrike in the country's north, the country's ambassador to the U.N. said Tuesday.

Syria reported the incursion on Thursday, saying Israeli aicraft flew over the northern part of the country and dropped munitions over an empty area after being fired on by Syrian antiaircraft defenses.

A U.S. military official said the Israeli incursion last week was an airstrike "deep into Syria" that hit a target. The offical, who spoke on condition of anonymity because it was an intelligence issue, said he did not know the target.

But the Syrian ambassador, Bashar al-Jaafari, said the Israeli aircraft dropped munitions and fuel tanks to lighten their weight as they fled the anti-aircraft fire.

"They were fleeing and in order to speed up the planes they dropped the munitions," he told The Associated Press from New York.

Syria has called the incursion a "hostile act" but has been largely silent over the details. Israeli officials refuse to comment.

Syria's U.N. ambassador, Bashar al-Jaafari, said his government made its complaint in two letters to the U.N. secretary general and the president of the Security Council. The letters said the Israeli action was in violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement that was reached after the 1973 Mideast war.

The letters warned that "continuing to disregard denunciation of this act could result in consequences that no one knows its limits," according to al-Jaafari. He said Syria awaits a stand from U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon "that would hold Israel responsible and demands that it ceases" such acts.

Al-Jaafari said he had no further details on the incursion, but denied news reports Israeli troops were inside Syria. "This is absolutely not true," saying the reports were an attempt to show that Israel could land troops wherever it wants.

"Israel is seeking military escalation. We are exerting efforts so that we don't fall into this trap. We are dealing with the matter with utmost keenness, precision and responsibility," he added.

CNN reported Tuesday that the incident was an Israeli attack on Iranian weapons being transferred through Syria to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

The report, citing U.S. government sources, said the operation involved warplanes and ground forces that were meant to mark targets or inspect the damage caused by the attack.

Asked whether he could confirm an Israeli strike on an Iranian arms shipment, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, "No. I think you should talk to the Syrian government or the Israeli government."

___

AP correspondents Pauline Jelinek and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

This forum is about current events in Israel, yankale. Unlike in Israel, a lot of Americans aren't familiar with what's going on in the news in Israel. It's good for people to be informed, though, and this forum is designed to encourage people to educate themselves. The flap with Syria is hardly even in the news in the United States, but as I'm sure you're aware, even events not related to the trail can affect hikers' plans. Two weeks after we finished our hike at Kibbutz Dan in 2006, Hezbollah kidnapped soldiers and started shooting rockets.

And no, it doesn't specifically have anything to do with the trail; that's why it's not in "Current Events Affecting the Trail."

Again, let me refer you to my earlier post on the "Google Earth INT Map" thread.

Yes, you are wrong.

It's not like a PCT forum having news about Hillary and Obama, because Hillary and Obama are not involved with a hostile nation whose border is only a few miles from the northern end of the PCT. Yankale, think about this from the point of view of American hikers considering hiking the INT. Israel is a small country. Events that take place between Israel and her neighbors have the potential to affect Americans' plans for visiting Israel.

You're allowed to have a different point of view on this, obviously, but people outside Israel need to understand what's going on in Israel and the Middle East in general, especially when explaining to their families that Israel is not one huge warzone.

Hi, Yankale. I'm glad you feel free to share your thoughts, but your condescension is shocking and inappropriate (I'm referring to this: "Sorry Shay you need to study Geography first").

I've never hiked the INT, but I'm planning to do so, and I'm finding all the information on this forum helpful already, including Israel news. You said, "is like having a forum about PCT + news about Hillary and Obama." Yankale, if Hillary and Obama were officially at war with California, then it would be foolish not to discuss the interactions between them and California in the context of the PCT - especially if hikers had to come to California to hike it.

As a foreigner to Israel, a decision to hike the INT is a decision to come to Israel. The fact is, Israel has significant potential for conflict along its borders, which, as you accurately noted, are very close to the Trail at times. Therefore, montioring this potential conflict is extremely relevant to the INT and I think it is very responsible of the hosts of this forum to provide a place where potential hikers can consider and discuss the current events of Israel and the ways they may affect hiking the Trail. We can all hope together that this message simply becomes "all is calm right now."

I'm having a hard time understanding why you feel so strongly against providing a political and cultural context for nation that the National Trail covers. However, if you continue to find threads about Israel-related news a "turn-off" and you can't resist disrespecting those that you disagree with, then it might be less upsetting for you if you did not frequent those threads.

Yankale,

The reason I think the articles like the one about Syria are relevant and helpful to people like me is that, even though the incident was hundreds of miles from the Trail, Syria's border and military reach is not very far from the Trail at all. Incidents like this have the potential to escalate as they did with Lebanon in 2006. If that were to happen, the fight would be between two entire countries that share a border. Your reasoning doesn't make sense; the physical distance to the Trail is not the only thing that matters. It's important to consider the overall effect that an event like that could have on hikers visiting Israel.

You seem to think that this thread of the forum is intended to make hikers afraid to hike the Trail. I don't think that's the case at all. I think it's simply intended to inform people so they can make their own decision on whether or not it's worth it for them to come to Israel. On top of that, I think the information in this thread can be a good way to calm people's fears about coming to Israel. The bottom line is that this is very helpful for potential foreign INT hikers.

I think you need to realize that it's pointless to talk only about hiking the Trail if foreign hikers won't even come to Israel because they don't understand current events.

Yankale:

You're right -- we'll just have to agree to disagree. But I think there may be a misunderstanding here as well. The "Current Events" forum isn't just for news articles about political events involving Israel, but it can include those. I think there's enough going on in and around Israel that not all of the news has to be potentially "negative."

However, I reiterate my point that people need to be informed about Israel in general. You can bring up the valid point that articles like this are covered too much by the mainstream media, and you can counteract them by posting articles that show another side of things. That would be great. But your sarcastic and condescending responses to other people's posts are getting old.

You should take your own advice on talking about the trail -- you have spent more time on this forum criticizing other people's posts, and the forum itself, than you have spent talking about the trail. That's sad, because you have a lot of valuable information that people can use.