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Air raid sirens sounded in the Golan Heights - Israeli military statement


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Air raid sirens sounded in the Golan Heights - Israeli military statement

 

2018-05-09T222721Z_1_LYNXMPEE482FD_RTROPTP_3_MIDEAST-CRISIS-SYRIA-ISRAEL.JPG

An Israeli tank can be seen near the Israeli side of the border with Syria in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel May 9, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

 

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli military said early on Thursday that several air raid sirens had "sounded in the area of the Golan Heights" and that it was looking into the cause.

 

Tensions have been high since U.S. President Donald Trump announced he was quitting the Iranian nuclear deal on Tuesday, prompting Israel to go on high alert.

 

In a short initial statement on Thursday the Israel Defence Forces said "the details are being looked into" and gave no further details.

 

On Tuesday the Israeli military said it had identified “irregular activity” by Iranian forces in Syria, and instructed civic authorities on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to ready bomb shelters. It also deployed new defences and mobilized some reservist forces.

 

Israel's government was a strong supporter of, and advocate for, Trump's decision to quit the Iran nuclear deal and has been readying itself for a possible regional flare-up.

 

In the run-up to Trump's decision, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised presentation last week that Israel had obtained tens of thousands of pages of what he described as Iran's "secret atomic archives" from what looked from the outside to be a dilapidated Tehran warehouse.

 

Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah have been helping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad beat back a seven-year-old rebellion. Israel has carried out repeated air strikes against them, hoping to stop the formation of a Lebanese-Syrian front to its north.

 

On Tuesday Syrian state media accused Israel of launching missiles at a target near Damascus, shortly after Trump's announcement. Syrian air defences fired at two Israeli missiles, destroying both, Syrian state news agency SANA.

 

An Israeli military spokeswoman said at the time that "we do not respond to such foreign reports."

 

(Reporting by Stephen Farrell; Editing by Sandra Maler)

 
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-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-05-10
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Iranian forces in Syria shell Israeli army bases on Golan - Israel

 

2018-05-09T225800Z_1_LYNXMPEE482GV_RTROPTP_3_MIDEAST-CRISIS-SYRIA-ISRAEL.JPG

An Israeli soldier sits on an APC as it drives near the Israeli side of the border with Syria in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel May 9, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

 

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Iranian forces on the Syrian-held side of the Golan Heights shelled Israeli army outposts on the strategic plateau on Thursday but caused no casualties, the Israeli military said.

 

Israel retaliated for the attack, military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus said, without elaborating.

 

The late-night incident followed a surge in tensions between Israel and Syria, where Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah forces have been helping Damascus beat back a 7-year-old rebellion.

 

Fearing that Iran and Hezbollah are setting up a Lebanese-Syrian front against it, Israel has occasionally struck at their forces. Iran blamed it for an April 9 air strike that killed seven of its military personnel in Syria, and vowed revenge.

 

Conricus said that, in Thursday's attack, around 20 projectiles, most likely rockets, were fired by the Quds Force, an external arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, at around 12.10 a.m.

 

"A few of those rockets were intercepted" by Israel's Iron Dome air defence system, Conricus told reporters. "We are not aware of any casualties. The amount of damage that we currently assess is low."

 

Asked if Israel retaliated for the salvo, he said: "We have retaliated but I have no further details about this."

 

Expectations of a regional flare-up were stoked by U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement on Tuesday that he was withdrawing from the Iranian nuclear deal. Hours later, an Israeli air strike in Syria killed 15 people, including 8 Iranians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

 

Israel has neither confirmed or denied responsibility.

 

(Reporting by Stephen Farrell; Editing by James Dalgleish)

 
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Syrian state media says dozens of Israeli rockets fired into Syria

 

2018-05-09T222721Z_1_LYNXMPEE482FC_RTROPTP_3_MIDEAST-CRISIS-SYRIA-ISRAEL.JPG

An Israeli soldier stands on a tank as another jumps off it near the Israeli side of the border with Syria in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel May 9, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

 

BEIRUT/JERSUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel launched dozens of rockets into Syria early on Thursday, Syrian state media reported, after Israel's military said Iranian forces in Syria had shelled one of its outposts near the border.

 

The scale of Israeli fire appeared to be far higher than in previous incidents and Damascus residents described seeing a series of explosions above the city from air defence systems.

 

Tensions between Israel and Iran have threatened to spill over in Syria, where the Iranian military and allied Shi'ite militia are backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his war against rebels seeking to oust him.

 

"The Syrian air defences are confronting a new wave of Israeli aggression rockets and downing them one after the other," state news agency SANA reported.

 

Asked whether Israel had attacked near Damascus or scrambled communications there, an Israeli military spokeswoman said, "I have no comment on that at this time."

 

Syrian state television was broadcasting footage of its air defences firing at incoming rockets and playing patriotic songs.

 

It said Israeli warplanes were firing the rockets from outside Syria's borders and targeting Baath City in Quneitra province.

 

Israel's military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said earlier that Israel had retaliated for an attack on its outposts in the strategic Golan Heights plateau. He did not elaborate.

 

Israeli media said residents of Metulla, on the Lebanese border, had been instructed to go to bomb shelters. There was no official confirmation.

 

Syria's state news agency SANA and a war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, had reported artillery fire from Israeli-held territory at Baath City, located near the border. The Observatory said rockets were fired at military positions of the Syrian army and allied forces.

 

A correspondent for SANA said strikes were targeting Syrian air defence brigades and attempting to destroy radar installations.

 

Lebanon's National News Agency, citing Lebanese Army Command, reported Israeli jets circling over Lebanese territory early on Thursday before exiting.

 

MOUNTING TENSIONS

The late-night incident followed a surge in tensions between Israel and Syria, where Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah forces have been helping Damascus beat back a 7-year-old rebellion.

 

Israel describes Iran as its biggest threat and Hezbollah as the biggest threat on its borders.

 

Fearing that Iran and Hezbollah are setting up a Lebanese-Syrian front against it, Israel has occasionally struck at their forces. Iran blamed it for an April 9 air strike that killed seven of its military personnel in Syria, and vowed revenge.

 

Conricus said that, in Thursday's attack, around 20 projectiles, most likely rockets, were fired by the Quds Force, an external arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, at around 12.10 a.m.

 

"A few of those rockets were intercepted" by Israel's Iron Dome air defence system, Conricus told reporters. "We are not aware of any casualties. The amount of damage that we currently assess is low."

 

Asked if Israel retaliated for the salvo, he said, "We have retaliated but I have no further details about this."

 

Expectations of a regional flare-up were stoked by U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement on Tuesday that he was withdrawing from the Iranian nuclear deal. Hours later, Israeli rocket rockets targeted a military base in Kisweh, a commander in the pro-Syrian government regional alliance said.

 

The strike killed 15 people, including eight Iranians, the Observatory said. Israel has neither confirmed or denied responsibility.

 

(Reporting by Stephen Farrell and Dan Williams in Jerusalem and Dahlia Nehme in Beirut, writing by Angus McDowall; Editing Grant McCool, Toni Reinhold)

 
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45 minutes ago, ezzra said:

He's indeed one of the kind, the one that rattles the snake' cages of Iran

and N. Korea showing them who's boss here..., something that good

old Barack Hussein Obama would never do...

The problem with dealing with snakes is that sooner or later one bites you. :cheesy:

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3 minutes ago, car720 said:

Unfortunately the world of megalomaniacs is another place all together.

And who cast the first hard object today,Megalomaniacs?

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7 minutes ago, geriatrickid said:

Mr. Trump did not launch missiles at Israel. Iran did that, all by itself.

Your logic is rather disturbing as it excuses Iran's attack. Because a country says it does not wish to continue a sham of an agreement and has exercised its right to withdraw, the other party  launches an attack on an unrelated third party.

The USA withdrawal is not reason to attack anyone.

 

The USA has stated that it will withdraw from NAFTA unless the treaty is renegotiated to address its concerns. Your logic would justify a missile attack by Canada and Mexico against an important trading partner of the USA, China.

Not the best action is it? Not justified is it? Why then would you try to blame Trump?

 

How does that justify Iran's attack? Iran isn't going after Israel to recover the Golan. It is attacking Israel because it wishes to wipe the country out. I remind you of three uncontested facts;

 

1. The border was never settled. You seem to be unaware that when  Syria attacked Israel in 1948  it captured land that was part of Israel's original territory. Despite an agreement for a DMZ and water management agreements, Syria repeatedly attacked Israel and allowed Fatah to use the Golan for their  bases. Syria regularly fired  artillery into Israel from the Golan heights. No one was making any claims of Israeli occupation at the time, but Syria was sworn to the destruction of Israel, period.

 

2. Syria and  its arab allies were planning a surprise attack and destruction of Israel in 1967. The arabs miscalculated and were defeated. As a result, Israel took the area from which the arabs had been launching their attacks and created buffer zones. The arabs were the aggressors, not Israel.

 

3. 1973 war: When Syria launched its surprise attack on the holiest day of the year for Israel, it nearly broke through. Had the Israelis not had the Golan  territory to  act as a buffer, Syria would have been in Jerusalem within a day. Fortunately, some brave and brilliant Israeli tank commanders  did not retreat and held their ground. Outnumbered by tanks and troops, in some areas by a ratio of 10:1, Israel stood firm.  Israel cannot give up the Golan to a hostile nation. Whether it be Syria or its new defacto rulers, Iran.

 

The defacto armistice between Syria and Israel  held up since 1973. It  has only started to shred now that Iran has moved its Republican Guards into Syria and seeks to create a defacto shiite state, just as it did with Hizbollah in Lebanon.

This is  all about Iran looking to make trouble and to push its Shiite views on the local Sunnis.

 

Listen, I've got no beef with Israel. I have been a long term supporter of theirs, until the settlements. They have no right to settle disputed territories. I am still a supporter of theirs if they are attacked within their boundaries, but if it happens in the occupied territories I figure it is the risk an occupying force must take into consideration.

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3 hours ago, dexterm said:

As is the racist state of Israel. Making war is only MO they know. Isn't it time they tried making peace with their neighbors by giving back land they have stolen... the Golan Heights.

 

I have no doubt that Israel with their sophisticated weaponry will ultimately prevail in the latest war they are intent on starting, but Netanyahu and draft dodging Trump will have much Israeli and possibly US blood on their hands when the missiles start flying. Many civilians on both sides will be killed.

 

Readers note who started this.

I don't often disagree with you, but Israel would be mad to give the Golan Heights back. Surely you can remember when Syrian artillery used to shell Israel from them?

It's the only occupied land that I think they shouldn't give back.

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1 hour ago, sukhumvitneon said:

This whole mess could've been avoided if it weren't for the Balfour Declaration where the British promised the same piece of land to two different ethnic groups simultaneously. 

It's called divide and rule. That's how most imperial powers gain and maintain an empire.

Edited by Krataiboy
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6 hours ago, sukhumvitneon said:

This whole mess could've been avoided if it weren't for the Balfour Declaration where the British promised the same piece of land to two different ethnic groups simultaneously. 

1920 something, no?

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