[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Israel’s air force targeted gunman linked to the ISIS group in Syria overnight, the army said Monday, after they fired on an Israeli soldier in the occupied Golan Heights."Overnight the (Israeli air force) targeted an abandoned UN building that has been used by the ISIS as an operations center along the border in the southern Syrian Golan Heights," an army statement read.
It said the building was the "base for yesterday’s attack," which was believed to be the first such direct assault by jihadists on Israeli soldiers in the Golan Heights since Syria’s civil war began in 2011.
The army said Israeli soldiers were targeted Sunday with machinegun fire and mortars and shot back. The air force then bombed the vehicle carrying the gunnies, identified as members of the Yarmouk Martyrs
...a rebel group in southern Syria. They gained attention when they abducted 21 Filipino UN soldiers in early March 2013, releasing them on 10 March 2013. The group has been accused by other Syrian rebel groups of being affiliated with the Islamic State, which it denies. Their leader is Abo Ali al-Baridi, who denies they're takfiris. They just want to apply God’s rule and Sharia. They have been attacked by al-Nusra and other groups allied with it, probably because they're so pious...
’ Brigade, a Syrian rebel group that pledged allegiance to ISIS.
Four of the holy warriors were killed, with no Israeli soldiers injured.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the soldiers who "successfully repelled an attempted attack."
"Our forces are prepared on our northern border, and we won’t let ISIS elements or other hostile elements use the cover of the war in Syria to establish themselves next to our borders," he said in remarks relayed by his office.
Israel seized 1,200 square kilometers (460 square miles) of the Golan from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognized by the international community.
The two countries are still technically at war, though the border had remained largely quiet for decades until 2011.
Since then regular stray missiles have landed in Israeli border areas, but rebel groups and Syrian government forces have largely avoided directly targeting Israeli forces.
Israel attacks Syrian military targets when fire, even unintentional, spills over the demarcation line.
| Ynet adds: |
The target, an outpost in Wadi Sirhan not far from the border with Israel, was previously used by the UN. International forces [who] abandoned the outpost two years ago after fighters from Shuhada' al-Yarmouk (the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade), which is affiliated with ISIS, kidnapped UN peacekeepers.
It has since been taken over by the militants and serves as a base of operations near the border with Israel. The outpost is used for training and to store arms.
| The secondaries must have been fun. |