Israel launches air attacks on three Syrian military facilities

Israeli army says the attacks came in response to a Syrian drone incursion into the occupied Golan Heights.

ISRAEL - GOLAN HEIGHTS 31 AUGUST - View of the border between Israel and Syria in Magdal Shams area in the Golan heights on 31 August 2014. Syrian rebel militias, captured parts of the Quneitra region
Three Syrian army positions in Quneitra province were hit overnight [Eddie Gerald/Getty Images]

Israel has attacked Syrian military positions after an unmanned drone entered its airspace near the occupied Golan Heights on Thursday.

The Israeli military acknowledged in a statement that three Syrian army positions in Quneitra province were targeted overnight, saying it was in retaliation for the entering of a Syrian drone into its airspace a few hours earlier.

“The IDF holds the Syrian regime accountable for the actions carried out in its territory and warns it from further action against Israeli forces,” the Israeli army statement said.

Israeli-issued black-and-white surveillance footage showed missiles hitting what appeared to be a hut, a two-storey structure and a five-storey structure amid hilly terrain.

Syrian state media said the Israeli air attacks on the southern province inflicted material damage but had caused no deaths or injuries, adding that the country’s air defences had managed to intercept at least a few missiles.

“The aircraft of the Israeli enemy fired several missiles in the direction of some army positions,” state media cited a Syrian military source as saying.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said this was not the first time that Israel targeted forces inside Syria.

“There has been cross-border violence in the past. Israel has hit Syrian army position, it has hit what it says are positions belonging to Hezbollah in Syria as well as Iranian targets.”

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Netanyahu’s talks with Putin centered on Russia’s involvement in Syria as President Bashar al-Assad‘s main ally and the scepticism Israel has displayed towards the presence Iranian-linked armed groups in Syria.

Earlier in May, Israel launched what has been described as the largest and most prolonged attack on Syria in decades, after it accused Iran of sending rockets towards the occupied Golan Heights. 

Source: Al Jazeera, News Agencies