Israel Strikes Southern Syria, Drops Threatening Leaflets

The leaflets took credit for the strikes and warned the Syrian military not to cooperate with Hezbollah

The Israeli military on Sunday dropped threatening leaflets in southern Syria hours after launching missile strikes in the area.

The Israeli missile strikes took place late Saturday, and reports said the strike hit a Syrian military radar system in an area of southern Syria known as Tel al-Qalib, although the incident has not been confirmed by Syrian state media, which usually reports on Israeli operations.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) appeared to take credit for the missile strikes in the leaflets that were dropped. “Time after time, you have been responsible for the harm caused by your decisions,” the flyer reads, according to The Times of Israel.

The leaflet adds that the “continuing presence of Hezbollah in the area of Tel al-Qalib and collaboration with it has brought and will bring you nothing good. The presence of Hezbollah in the area has brought you humiliation and you are paying the price for that.”

Israel frequently bombs Syria, but the IDF rarely acknowledges individual strikes. The Israelis frame their operations in Syria as attacks against Iran and Hezbollah, but they frequently kill Syrian soldiers and target civilian infrastructure, including airports in Damascus and Aleppo.

Asharq Al-Awsat, an Arabic newspaper based in London, reported on Saturday, citing unnamed Israeli political sources, that Israel has threatened Lebanon that it could bomb Beirut’s international airport. The threat was made based on allegations made in Saudi media that Iran has used civilian flights into the airport to transfer weapons to Hezbollah.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.