Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Israeli Airstrike Kills Armed Islamic State Operatives On Border With Syria

JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israeli airstrike killed armed Islamic State operatives in the Syrian Golan Heights.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that it was tracking the movement of the men toward the border fence with Israel on the Golan Heights on Wednesday evening. They were believed to be fleeing the Syrian army of President Bashar Assad. The IDF jets carried out the attack when the men came within less than 200 yards of the security fence with Israel.

Israeli troops on Thursday morning searched the area where the airstrikes occurred, and found the bodies of the Islamic State squad members as well as five Kalashnikov rifles and vests containing explosive devices and grenades, according to the IDF. Arab media reports said that seven men were killed.

IDF Spokesman Brigadier General Ronen Manalis said in a statement that at no stage in the operation was there a threat to Israeli citizens on Israeli territory.

Russia announced Thursday that it would deploy military police and place monitoring posts on the Golan Heights to prevent further confrontations.

On Thursday morning the IDF completed a large-scale drill of war scenarios testing the military preparedness on the northern border. The IDF statement said that the exercise been planned in advance as part of its 2018 training program.

Also on Thursday morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled a trip to Colombia scheduled for next week to attend the inauguration of the country’s new president, Iván Duque, due to the volatile situation on Israel’s borders.

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.