Israel fired a surface-to-surface missile against a military site in southern Syria’s Quneitra. The attack killed a single Syrian soldier, wounded two more, and damaged a military vehicle.
Israeli officials were unusually forthcoming about why they attacked, claimed an “abnormal” Syrian violation of Israeli sovereignty earlier in the day, in which a Syrian anti-aircraft system fired at an Israeli warplane.
Israel insists the warplane was in northern Israeli airspace, and Syria
has claimed it was aggression against them. The air defense system was
reportedly the target of the Israeli missile attack.
The indication is the warplane was on the fringe between the Israeli
occupied Golan Heights and the Syrian side, and given how many times
Israel has just attacked Syria out of the blue from that area, Syria may
have just assumed it was another attack and reacted.
Israeli officials are now playing up a “zero-tolerance” policy along the
frontier, and trying to spin this as something to do with Iran. As with
recent Saudi flare-ups in Yemen, this is likely being done for the
benefit of US hawks looking for a pretext to attack Iran.
Israel Strikes Southern Syria, Kills Syrian Soldier
Israel accuses Syrian anti-aircraft system of firing on warplane
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
Join the Discussion!
We welcome thoughtful and respectful comments. Hateful language, illegal content, or attacks against Antiwar.com will be removed.
For more details, please see our Comment Policy.
×