Damascus attack sparks fear of escalation JERUSALEM: Israeli jets appear to have attacked a military centre on the outskirts of Damascus. If confirmed, it would be its second strike inside Syria in the past three days. Heavy explosions rocked the area around Mount Qassioun in the early hours of Sunday and amateur videos posted online show huge orange fireballs ballooning into the night sky after the attack, believed to have targeted the Jamraya Military Centre. With summer just beginning, the region is approaching a boiling point. Amir Rapaport, Ma'ariv Syrian state television reported: "The new Israeli attack is an attempt to raise the morale of the terrorist groups which have been reeling from strikes by our noble army." As criticism mounts over US President Barack Obama's muted response to the Syrian crisis, key defence commentators inside Israel said its attempt to deter the transport of "game-changing" weapons from Syria to Lebanon risked failure. Alex Fishman, defence commentator for the daily Yedioth Ahronoth, wrote: "Preventing the convoy of weapons from leaving Syria for Hezbollah is beginning to look a lot like the ritual of the targeted killing operations in Gaza: real time intelligence, a swift closure of the circle of fire, destruction. Until the next convoy . . . That is going to force Israel into a Sisyphean ritual of staging attacks in Syria, which will go hand in hand with taking the risk that this conflict could spiral out of control, and that one of these operations could result in a regional conflagration. His concerns were echoed by Ma'ariv's military affairs correspondent, Amir Rapaport, who on Sunday warned it was "by no means self-evident that the summer of 2013 will conclude without a war. The New York Times reported the Israel's first attack, early on Friday, targeted a shipment of Fateh-110 short-range, ground-to-air missiles that were bound for Hezbollah. Syria denied the attack had occurred. In late January, an Israeli airstrike targeted a suspected SA-17 anti-aircraft missile shipment intended for Hezbollah near the Jamraya centre. Both missile systems are viewed by Israel as potentially "game-changing" weapons that could significantly threaten Israel's security should they reach Hezbollah in Lebanon. The missiles have a range of more than 200 kilometres and are capable of bearing chemical agents. The reported attacks coincided with what appeared to be a terrifying campaign of sectarian violence and massacres in the Syrian coastal town of Baniyas and the Sunni village of al-Bayda. There are fears that hundreds have been killed in the three-day assault by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. Videos posted online by opposition activists show dozens of bodies piled into houses, many shot in the head execution style. "After Al-Bayda village massacre, where at least 51 civilians [were] slaughtered by knifes or shot to death by Syrian Government's Armed Forces ... we documented 160 civilians killed in Ras al-Nabaa district in Banias; including 26 children and 22 women, slaughtered and burned," the Syrian Network for Human Rights said. The real number may exceed that in dozens, activists couldn't count many bodies still in houses. Hundreds of families have fled the area, opposition activists say. The United States condemned the execution of "entire families, including women and children," a State Department spokeswoman said. Mr Obama would not be drawn on whether the air strikes against Syria had occurred. "I'll let the Israeli government confirm or deny whatever strikes that they've taken," he told the Spanish-language network Telemundo. What I have said in the past and I continue to believe is that the Israelis justifiably have to guard against the transfer of advanced weaponry to terrorist organisations like Hezbollah. We co-ordinate closely with the Israelis recognising they are very close to Syria, they are very close to Lebanon," he said.