Syrian troops fire at Israel's on Golan Heights
And the IDF wisely fires back:
JERUSALEM — The Israeli army said it targeted a Syrian army position with an antitank missile Sunday after one of its patrols came under fire from the Syrian side of the frontier on the Golan Heights, the latest flare-up in a zone made increasingly volatile by Syria’s civil war.Syria could be plotting an attack on Israel, presumably as a way to rally other Islamic countries behind them.
An Israeli military official said the Syrian firing appeared to be deliberate, unlike previous incidents in which errant shells from fighting between rebels and government forces in Syria landed in Israel-held territory.
The cease-fire line between Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan, which had been quiet for decades, has become increasingly unsettled as fighting has intensified between Syrian government troops and rebels in the area near the frontier.
After shots were fired at an Israeli patrol vehicle early Sunday, Israeli forces launched a Tamuz guided antitank missile that destroyed a Syrian machine-gun position identified as the source of fire, military officials said. There was no immediate response from Syria.
The incident followed a similar shooting Saturday, when an Israeli patrol jeep was hit by gunfire from the Syrian side, causing light damage but no casualties, the army said. The exchanges led to the temporary suspension of work in the area on a new Israeli border fence along the Golan frontier, according to the military.
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon warned in a statement that if Israeli forces are fired on from Syria, Israel will “immediately silence the sources of fire when they are identified.”
“We view the Syrian regime as responsible for every breach of sovereignty,” Yaalon said. “We will not allow the Syrian army or any other element to violate Israel’s sovereignty by shooting into our territory.”
Labels: anti-semitism, islam, Israel, jihad, military, syria, terrorism, war on terror
