Syrian army fired anti-tank missile into Israel, security source says
Israeli retaliatory strike killed 3 Syrian soldiers and injured 10 others; Assad regime calls IDF strike a "flagrant violation" of int'l law.
By YAAKOV LAPPIN, GIL STERN STERN HOFFMANAn Israeli tank is seen on the Golan Heights.(photo credit: REUTERS)
The Syrian army fired an anti-tank missile into Israel on Sunday, a senior security source said yesterday. According to the source, it is not yet clear whether the missile was fired at an Israeli truck deliberately or not.Also on Sunday, three Syrian soldiers were killed and 10 wounded during that night’s IDF strike on Syrian military targets, launched in response to an earlier cross-border missile attack that killed an Israeli teenager. The targets included Syrian command posts and firing positions, the IDF said.“We identified accurate strikes on the targets,” it added.Israeli jets and Tamuz ground-to-ground missiles struck nine targets belonging to the Syrian military. Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime has not responded.On Monday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told his Knesset Likud faction, “We demonstrated strength overnight versus the Syrian army that took action against us and if there is a need, we will use more force. We will continue to take forceful action against anyone who harms us or attempts to harm us.”Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Monday that the Assad regime is responsible for Sunday’s cross-border missile attack.“We see the regime of Bashar Assad and the Syrian military as responsible for what occurs in the territory under their control, and we will respond aggressively and harshly against any provocation and violation of our sovereignty,” Ya’alon said in a statement.On Sunday, IDF tanks immediately returned fire at Syrian Army positions in response to what an IDF source called a deliberate attack on a truck. The 14 yearold- boy killed in the original attack was Muhammad Karaka, of the lower Galilee village of Arrabe, whose father Fahmi, a contractor, was wounded in the attack.Karaka had been accompanying his father on his first day of summer vacation.An initial investigation into the attack found that the barrier separating Israel from Syria along the Golan Heights prevented even more casualties, as it managed to absorb a large chunk of the blast from the missile strike.In March, the IDF launched strikes in response to a border bombing of an IDF patrol, which wounded four soldiers traveling on the Golan Heights.During those air strikes, Syrian army command posts, artillery batteries, and a training base on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights were hit.
