News media affiliated with the government of Syria accused Israel on Thursday of planting a number of spy devices disguised as rocks, which were found located near “sensitive sites” in the country. The government-owned Syrian Arab News Agency, which published photographs of the alleged spy devices, said they were discovered “in the past few days” at an unspecified region on Syria’s Mediterranean coast. Later on the same day, video footage of the devices was aired on Syrian state television. The video footage and photographs show what appear to be large-sized faux rocks. Nestled in their hollow interior are cameras, microphones, transmission devices, as well as large batteries. Syrian media reports said that the transmission gear enabled the devices to broadcast audio and video signals in real time. The camouflaged contraptions closely resemble a number of “mystery devices” found on mountain ranges around the Lebanese capital Beirut in 2010 and 2011.The electronic devices found in Lebanon were hidden under two fake boulders and consisted of surveillance cameras, electronic transmitters, as well as satellite signal reception systems. One of the devices was even connected to a third fake boulder containing long-lasting batteries, which powered the surveillance system. The devices, which were discovered by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, displayed manufacturing labels bearing writing in Hebrew and in English, which included the name of a company called “Beam Systems Israel Ltd”. Syrian media expressed certainty that the camouflaged devices belonged to the Israeli intelligence services and accused Israel of meddling in the internal affairs of Syria in support of the rebel forces fighting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. But Yigal Palmor, spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, told the Reuters news agency that Israel “will not be dragged into the Syrian civil war” and refused to comment on the specific allegations concerning the alleged spy devices. A spokeswoman for the Israel Defense Forces told Reuters that the Israeli military was “checking the reports” from Syria, but refused to comment further on the matter.
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