Israel denies Syrian accusations

JERUSALEM, Jan. 6 (JTA) — Israel has rejected Syrian accusations that it carried out a fatal bus bombing in Damascus last week and that it planned additional terrorist attacks. “The government of Israel is not involved and has no connection to what happened,” Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai told reporters Monday. If Syria is “looking for someone to blame, they should look somewhere else,” he said. In an editorial this week, the Syrian daily Tishrin accused Israel of closing the door on peace and of planning terrorist attacks in Syria and against Syrian targets in Lebanon. Syrian officials earlier said that Israel was responsible for the bus bombing last week in Damascus that left 11 people dead and 42 wounded. Israel has flatly denied the charge. Appearing Monday before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Mordechai also said Hezbollah gunmen fighting Israeli troops in southern Lebanon had recently received large shipments of arms via Syria.