Israel attacks Syrian army sites

Posted by admin Africa & World Politics, Headlines Wednesday, March 19th, 2014

Israel says it has attacked several Syrian military sites in retaliation for a bombing that wounded four of its troops in the occupied Golan Heights.

Among the targets were a headquarters, a training facility and artillery batteries, the Israeli military said.

The Syrian army had “aided and abetted” the attack on a patrol near the ceasefire line on Tuesday, it added.

There has been no comment yet on the air strikes from Syria and it is not clear if there were any casualties.

The Israeli air force has conducted several aerial attacks on Syria since the uprising began three years ago.

Those air strikes are believed to have prevented the transfer of stockpiles of rockets from the Syrian government to Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia Islamist movement that supports President Bashar al-Assad.

These latest operations though were direct acts of retaliation, reports the BBC’s Kevin Connolly in Jerusalem.

The choice of targets demonstrates that Israel is clearly blaming Syrian government forces, and not rebel fighters or units of Hezbollah for the attack on its patrol, our correspondent says.

Israel has used artillery against Syrian targets on the Golan to respond in previous incidents, but its use of military aircraft on this occasion raises the incident to a more significant level, he adds.

At the start of a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that his country would act “forcefully” to defend itself against any attack.

“Our policy is very clear: we hurt those who hurt us,” he said.

-Punchwp_posts