Israeli aircraft hit Syria after squad tried to bomb border fence, military says

[webfact]

Israeli aircraft hit Syria after squad tried to bomb border fence, military says

 

Israeli soldiers rest near a gate in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights near the Israel-Syria frontier August 3, 2020. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

 

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli aircraft attacked targets in Syria on Monday, the military said, describing the strikes as retaliation for an attempted bombing of the border fence by an enemy squad.

 

Tensions have risen along Israel's northern front since a fighter with the Iranian-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah was killed in an apparent Israeli air strike in Syria two weeks ago.

 

Monday's strikes hit Syrian observation posts, intelligence collection systems, anti-aircraft batteries and command-and-control bases, an Israeli military statement said.

 

Syrian state media said Israeli helicopters fired at Syrian checkpoints in al-Qunaitra, on the Golan Heights, causing material losses. There was no immediate word of any casualties.

 

The Israeli military said it was responding to an attempt by a group of four people to plant explosives on a patrolled fence along the Golan armistice line between Israel and Syria.

 

The Israeli army on Monday said it targeted a group of four people who had planted explosives along the border fence with Syria on the Golan Heights. Joe Davies reports.

 

In that incident, reported by Israel early on Monday, the military fired on the squad. Surveillance video showed the group engulfed in an explosion. An Israeli military spokesman referred to them as "former terrorists," suggesting they had been killed.

 

The military spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus, said it was too soon to say if the squad belonged to any organization, but that Israel held "the Syrian regime accountable".

 

There was no comment from Syria on the fence incident.

 

The overnight encounter occurred at the same spot where until two years ago, Israel had operated a field hospital to treat Syrians who had been wounded in the Syrian civil war, Conricus told reporters.

 

Israel had noticed "irregular activity" in that area for about a week and had a commando team waiting there in ambush, Conricus said.

 

(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Robert Birsel and Tom Brown)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-08-04

 

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[ezzra]

Funny that its get a mention now after many weeks of escalating tension in the mideast following dozen or so of mysterious explosions in Iran that caused very serious damage to iran nuclear facilities, airports and shipyards and missile testing sites as well as in Iran's revolutionary guard facilities in Syria  culminating in the killing of high ranking Hezbollah commander and tit for tat responses by bothe israel Syria and hezbollah...

[nausea]

Tit for tat indeed; this conflict is going nowhere fast. Somebody on both sides needs to grasp the nettle, like mutual destruction or mutual co-operation; only a matter of time before Iran has nuclear weapons. Just accept that and get some kind of workable agreement in place, before it's too late.