Israeli warplanes on Tuesday night struck several Syrian artillery batteries in ostensible retaliation for rockets fired earlier from Syrian territory into northern Israel, the Israeli military has said.
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Meanwhile, Syria claimed its forces have shot down two Israeli aircraft near Golan Heights after they violated the global border.
A successful shootdown would be a huge game-changer for Israeli policy, which is to send planes into Lebanon and Syria at the drop of a hat, and sometimes to just send planes into Lebanon on a slow day when they don’t have anything better to do.
It has also been accused of targeting arms shipments said to be heading to Hezbollah, an active ally of the regime in the civil war and a long-time Israeli foe.
Syrian state television seized on the regime’s claim of a successful interception, featuring a series of interviews with experts and pundits who praised use of the missiles, according to Israeli news site Ynet.
Three projectiles from Syria fell inside the Israeli Golan Heights earlier in the latest incident of spillover from Israel’s war-torn neighbor.
“Overnight, two surface-to-air missiles were launched from Syria after the mission to target Syrian artillery positions”.
It was the fourth such incident in nine days, and came as a new Syrian ceasefire brokered by Russian Federation and the United States came into force on Monday. “At no point was the safety of [Israeli] aircraft compromised”, the IDF spokesman said.
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Israel has sought to avoid being drawn into Syria’s complex war which is now in its sixth year, but it has attacked Syrian military targets when fire from the conflict spills over.
