JERUSALEM, Sept 21: Israel’s opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu has given the first confirmation from Israel of a mysterious air strike on an unknown target deep in Syria earlier this month - fuelling frenzied speculation about exactly what happened.

The leader of the right-wing Likud party revealed that he had given Prime Minister Ehud Olmert his backing for carrying out the attack, which Damascus said took place on Sept 6. Up until then, the Israeli government had enforced a news blackout on the story.

Asked during a live TV interview, Mr Netanyahu said: “When a prime minister does something that is important and necessary to Israel’s security ... I give my backing. Here, too, I was a partner in the issue from the start, and I gave my backing. But it’s too early to be discussing this.”

The revelation of Mr Olmert’s consultation with the leader of the opposition suggested the mission was of unusual importance. Israeli commentators said it may have been on a par with the 1981 air attack on Iraq’s nuclear reactor.

Syria protested to the UN about the “flagrant violation” of its airspace. Officials in Damascus have reported that their air defences forced Israeli F15 jets to flee, dropping “munitions” and fuel tanks in the desert near the Turkish border.US and other officials have claimed that Israel hit Syrian targets that may have had links to North Korean nuclear arms - dismissed by Damascus as “a big lie”. Another suggestion is that the target was Iranian weapons destined for Lebanon’s Hezbollah.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service