Syrian soldiers fought rebels on Tuesday in a firefight that killed nine people and sent several mortars sailing across the border into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The Israeli military said nobody was hurt in the shelling and that the spillover was believed to be accidental. But Israel filed a complaint to the United Nations peacekeeping force that patrols the tense region between Israel and Syria.In July, mortar shells fell about one kilometer (half a mile) from the Golan boundary. The spillover is among the most worrying developments from the Syria crisis, which has the potential to enflame the entire region.
An Israeli defense official said the military believes the TuesdayÂ’s incident in the Golan Heights was a mistake and the mortars were not aimed at the Jewish state. It was not the first time shells from Syria exploded in Israel since the uprising began, the official said.
There have been concerns in Israel that the long-quiet Israel-Syria frontier area could become a new front against the Jewish state. The defense official said Israel is concerned that the border region could become as lawless and deadly as IsraelÂ’s frontier with EgyptÂ’s Sinai Peninsula has become since the fall of longtime Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak last year.
| The Israeli side won't be lawless, but the Syrian side, who knows... |