Syria test-fired three Scuds, says Israel

All the missiles were launched from northern Syria, near Minakh, north of Aleppo, the Israeli officials said. One was sent about 250 miles to southernmost Syria, near the Jordanian border. The one that broke up was fired southwest toward the Mediterranean, over the Turkish province of Hatay, the ancient Antioch, and shed debris over two villages there. The Israelis said they had film of the launching and breakup, and of at least one urk in a white shirt and dark trousers racing toward the debris in a field.

The fall of the debris was reported in the Turkish press, an US official said, together with a Syrian statement that the missile had been pointed in the wrong direction.

There were little startling about the tests, Israeli officials said, except the embarrassment to Turkey—a member of NATO—and the timing, during the Lebanese elections.

The Israeli military officials said they interpreted the launchings as a gesture of defiance to the US and the United Nations by the Syrian president, BashirAssad. —NYT