Israeli Troops Entered Syria, Destroyed Two Military Outposts

Late September raid confirmed by Israeli Army spokesman

The number of times Israel attacks Syrian territory in a given month make an individual incident normally unexceptional. Israel rarely admits to such attacks, however, and Wednesday, we got a rare case where the Israeli Army spokesman retroactively confirmed one.

On September 21, Israeli ground troops crossed the border into the Syrian Golan, destroying two military outposts, which Israel accused of being used for “routine security.” The Israeli Army official said it was retaliation for Syrian troops chasing rebels into the demilitarized zone.

The Israeli troops entered the area, planted explosives at the sites, and detonated both simultaneously. Other officials said they feared that leaving the outposts could see them used by Iran or Hezbollah some day.

What a site might be used for some day is never a legal justification for an attack, but Israel is long past needing to make justifications to attack Syria. This attack was the perfect example of that, where but for the army’s comments we’d never have known who did it or why.

Author: Jason Ditz

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.