DAMASCUS // Israeli air strikes in southern Syria killed six people and wounded seven, according to reports on Friday.
Syrian state TV said a drone targeted a “civilian car” close to a busy market in the village of Kom, killing five. Ahmad Sheikh Abdul Qader, governor of the southern region of Quneitra, said the attack happened on the road leading to the village of Khan Arnabeh, near Kom and destroyed the car.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said the five dead were members of the pro-government National Defense Forces.
Friday’s air raid followed more than a dozen Israeli strikes overnight which killed one person and wounded seven, a Syrian military source said.
The Israeli military did not comment on the reported casualties but said it carried out a raid Friday morning on “part of the terror cell responsible for the rocket fire at northern Israel.”
The strikes follow four rockets being fired from Syria into northern Galilee and part of the Israeli occupied Golan on Thursday. There were no injuries but it was the first time since the 1973 Mideast war that rockets from Syrian territory have slammed into Israel.
“Elimination of the squad which fired at Israel yesterday is further proof that we shall not tolerate any attempt to disrupt the lives of Israeli citizens or harm their security,” said Israeli defence minister Moshe Yaalon.
“Those who want to do so should know that the Israeli military and security forces will pursue them to the end and get our hands on them, anytime and anywhere.”
Israel said it had credible information that Iran, a key backer of Syrian president Bashar Al Assad, was behind Thursday’s rocket attack. The foreign ministry said in a statement that a commander who heads the Palestinian division of Iran’s elite Quds Force, identified as Saeed Izaadhi, orchestrated the attack that was carried out by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.
Iran is one of Mr Al Assad’s main backers and a supporter of Islamic Jihad. The militant group has its headquarters in Damascus.
In Gaza, the Islamic Jihad group denied involvement in the attack. Though active in the Gaza Strip, the militant group has its headquarters in Damascus.
Mr Yaalon added that Thursday’s attack on Israel was launched from positions under the control of Mr Al Assad’s forces.
“The fire was carried out from territory controlled by the Assad regime, which allows terrorist activity against Israel and which we hold as also responsible,” he said.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that it was his government’s policy to “hurt anybody who tries to hurt us”.
“We have no wish to escalate events but we are sticking by our policy,” he said in a statement.
“The Israel Defence Forces hit the squad that carried out the fire and the Syrian forces which allowed it.”
Syrian TV, meanwhile, said the air raids aimed to “boost the morale of terrorist organisations,” claiming that Israel is backing militants in the area.
Israel and Syria are bitter enemies. Israel has avoided taking sides in the Syrian civil war, which pits the regime of Bashar Al Assad against an array of militants, including ISIL.
Previous cross-border fire has frequently been attributed to spillover from fighting inside Syria and to Islamist rebels holding ground close to Israeli-held areas of the strategic Golan.
Since January 2013, Israeli has launched deadly raids inside Syria targeting regime forces along with Hizbollah.
Analysts said that the attack from Syria was a potential game-changer.
“The message is clear: this is a new front, a new battleground,” Eyal Zisser of Tel Aviv University said.
“The assumption is that they want to send the message that a new front is open now that the situation on the ground is changing,” said Shlomo Mofaz, of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, near Tel Aviv.
Israel seized 1,200 square kilometres of the Golan from neighbouring Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it 14 years later, in a move never recognised by the international community.
*Associated Press, Agence France-Presse