The Tuesday exchange of fire between Israeli and Syrian troops along the 1973 ceasefire line centered on the shooting of an Israeli military jeep. Syria has provided a letter to the UN Security Council detailing their side of the story.
According to those familiar with its contents, Syria says the jeep they attacked crossed the ceasefire line a 1:10 AM on Tuesday morning and headed in the direction of B’ir Ajam, a village in Syria that is currently held by the rebels.
Syrian officials said that the attempt to reach the village was part of ongoing Israeli support for the rebels along their frontier, and that the attack on the jeep was “self-defense.” They urged the UN Security Council to stop Israel from future cross-border operations, and complained about Israel firing missiles into southern Syria after the jeep was “destroyed.”
Israel told a completely different story on Tuesday, claiming the jeep was on the Israeli side of the ceasefire line, that it suffered only minor damage, and that they retaliated with missiles that scored “direct hits” on the Syrian military. It isn’t unusual for the two nations to be completely at odds about incidents like these, and has sparked threats from both sides of retaliation in the future.
Perhaps the jeep was on its way to extract Israeli special forces fighting with the rebels. If so we might expect the Syrians to publicly show Israeli prisoners before long. That would be interesting!
Unless they were blown to smithereens. Perhaps the Syrians will show the wreckage in that case.