JERUSALEM – Israel's army said it launched air strikes today on Iranian and Syrian targets inside Syria, calling it a retaliatory attack after it found explosive devices along its northern border.
Syrian state news agency SANA said the strikes killed three of its soldiers and injured another.
Yesterday, Israel's military said it had discovered improvised explosive devices (IEDs) on its side of a border crossing point with Syria.
The IEDs “were placed by a Syrian squad led by Iranian forces,” an army statement said.
“In response, overnight, IDF fighter jets struck military targets belonging to the Iranian Quds force and the Syrian Armed Forces,” it added.
Israel said it hit “storage facilities, headquarters and military compounds”.
“Syrian surface-to-air missile batteries were struck,” the statement added.
Israel has carried out hundreds of air and missile strikes on Syria since civil war broke out there in 2011, targeting Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah forces as well as government troops.
Israel rarely acknowledges individual strikes, but has done so when it says it is responding to specific attacks on Israeli territory. – AFP, November 18, 2020
