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Hamadeh said that while the source of interference has not been officially determined, the jamming coincided with Israel's aggression against Syria on Thursday.

"What we have witnessed over the past four or five days started with the aggressive Israeli infiltration on Syria," Hamadeh said in remarks published by the daily An Nahar on Wednesday.

He said the interference has dwindled toward a stop by late Tuesday.

It was the biggest jamming of cell phones since last summer's Israel's offensive against Lebanon, Hamadeh added.

An Arab Israeli newspaper reported on Wednesday that Israeli warplanes last week bombed and destroyed a northern Syrian missile base that was financed by Iran.

Citing anonymous Israeli sources, the Assennara newspaper said that Israeli jets "bombed in northern Syria a Syrian-Iranian missile base financed by Iran ... It appears that the base was completely destroyed."

Syria on Tuesday lodged a formal complaint with the United Nations over the "flagrant violation" of its airspace last Thursday, during which it said its air defenses opened fire on Israeli warplanes flying over the northeast of the country.

Israeli officials have refused to comment on the report, as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "specifically instructed ministers not to talk about the incident related to Syria at all," one senior Israeli government official said.

A U.S. defense official said on Tuesday that Israel had launched an air strike well inside Syria, apparently to send Damascus a message not to rearm Hezbollah.

The official did not know the target of the strike.

"The Israelis are trying to tell the Syrians: 'Don't support a resurgence of Hezbollah in Lebanon.'"

Israel fought a devastating 34-day war in July and August 2006 against Hezbollah, whose missile firepower and use of sophisticated weaponry surprised the Israelis.

CNN said the strike, which could have also involved the use of ground forces, was believed to have targeted weapons either coming into Syria or moving through Syria from Iran to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah


Picture: Israeli jet F16 C

Sources: Naharnet, Ya Libnan

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