By JOSHUA MITNICK and SAM DAGHER
TEL AVIV—Israel's defense minister indicated that his country was responsible for an airstrike in Syria last week, while Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accused the Jewish state of aiding the rebellion in the country's civil war.
The top leadership of both sides were breaking days of silence after reports surfaced that the Israeli air force targeted a transport of antiaircraft missiles en route to Lebanon.
Speaking at a security conference in Germany, Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the Jan. 30 attack is "another proof that when we say something we mean it. We say that we don't think it should be allowable to bring advanced weapons systems into Lebanon to Hezbollah from Syria when Assad falls." Mr. Barak gave no further details about the attack.
Mr. Assad said the attack "exposes the true role that Israel is playing in cooperation with hostile foreign forces and their proxies in Syria."
The attack was Israel's first major foray into the Syrian civil war and raised concerns Israel will take further military action in the country to protect itself from instability stemming from the disintegration of the regime.
It followed repeated warnings by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials of the dangers of Syrian weapons falling into the hands of Hezbollah and other hostile forces in the region.
Mr. Barak's comments, the first of any official Israeli comment on the incident, marked a departure from its frequent policy of not commenting on attacks abroad attributed to Israel. Analysts say that silence allows Israel to maintain a veneer of deniability and eases pressure on enemies to retaliate.
A U.S. official said last week that Israel targeted a weapons convoy transporting antiaircraft missiles destined for the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah in Lebanon. Syria said the target was a research facility.
In a prerecorded interview to be broadcast Monday on Syrian state TV, Syrian Defense Minister Gen. Fahd Jassem al-Freij responded to questions on why Syria wasn't retaliating against Israel by saying the strike was itself a retaliation after Israel's rebel proxies in Syria were repulsed by the Syrian army.
On Saturday, Syrian state TV broadcast what it said was footage of the military-research facility in Jamraya on the outskirts of Damascus that it said was hit by the Israeli airstrike.
Contrary to a statement issued by Syria's armed forces Wednesday, which said that the facility's main building was destroyed by the raid, the most extensive damage shown in the footage appeared to be in what the broadcast described as the parking lot.
Several sedans, pickup trucks, two trailer trucks and two passenger buses, which appeared to be in a column formation, suggesting they were part of a convoy, were shown incinerated or severely damaged. The end of the five-minute footage showed what looked like damaged military vehicles and trucks next to a crater in the ground.
A man identified as a worker at the facility and witness to the strike said that the vehicles belonged to staff and that the buses were used to transport workers but made no mention of the military vehicles.
The man said when the strike began he ran for cover in a nearby cypress forest and dislocated his shoulder when he threw himself on the ground. The man, who was shown with an arm sling, said he was hit by shrapnel in his hand and leg. He spoke outdoors next to the damaged vehicles. A patch of trees common in the Damascus countryside appeared in the background.
Echoing the regime's official statement, the man said only two people were killed in the strike.
—Farnaz Fassihi contributed to this article.Write to Sam Dagher at sam.dagher@wsj.com
A version of this article appeared February 4, 2013, on page A6 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Israel Indicates It Struck Syria Last Week.
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