Israel Air Strikes Kill 10 Syrian Soldiers
Israeli air strikes on Syrian military positions killed at least 10 members of Syria’s army, a monitoring group said on Monday, a day after Israel said an attack from inside Syria killed an Israeli boy in the Golan Heights.
Israeli tanks and warplanes fired at Syrian army positions overnight on Sunday in response to what an Israeli military spokesman described as an intentional attack from inside Syria.
“At least 10 members of the Syrian army were killed,” said Rami Abdurrahman from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group that collects information from activists in Syria.
The strikes also destroyed two army tanks and targeted an army headquarters, he said, confirming that the Israeli strikes had aimed at nine positions.
The three-year-old Syrian conflict between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and the rebels who want to overthrow him has spilled over into bordering countries and escalated regional tensions.
The strikes were in response to an anti-tank missile which was fired from Syria across the frontier fence on the Golan, Israel said on Sunday.
The missile had struck a water tanker in which Mohammed Qaraqara, 13, had been traveling, the military said, describing the attack as the most serious on the border with Syria since the start of the conflict.
Shelling from Syria has occasionally hit the Golan, including what Israel has said were deliberate attacks on its troops. Israel captured the western part of the plateau from Syria in a 1967 war and annexed it in a move that is not internationally recognized.
While the Syrian army has a presence on the Golan, some areas are controlled by the rebels, including militant groups hostile to the Jewish state.
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