IDF strikes targets in Syria in response to attempted terrorist attack

The targets hit in the strikes included lookout points, intelligence gathering mechanisms, anti-tank weapons and means of control and command at Syrian military bases.

Attack in Syria on August 25, 2019.

The IDF carried out airstrikes against targets belonging to the Syrian military in southern Syria on Monday night in response to an attempted terrorist attack that was thwarted along the Syrian border on Sunday night.

IDF aircraft, including fighter jets and helicopters, carried out the strikes, according to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.

The targets hit in the strikes included lookout points, intelligence gathering mechanisms, anti-tank weapons and means of control and command at Syrian military bases.

“The IDF sees the Syrian regime as responsible for all operations carried out in its territory and will continue to act with determination against all attacks on the sovereignty of the State of Israel,” said the IDF in a statement.

Syrian air defenses responded to “enemy targets” southwest of Damascus on Monday night, according to Syrian state news agency SANA.

According to SANA, only material damage was caused in strikes that targeted the Quneitra area in southern Syria. Al-Arabiya reported that injuries were caused in the strikes.

Shortly before the strikes in Quneitra, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that airstrikes by unidentified aircraft targeted sites belonging to pro-Iranian militias in Albukamal in the Deir Ezzor area of Syria near the Iraqi-Syrian border. Deaths and injuries were reported in the strikes that damaged armories and other sites belonging to the militias.

IDF soldiers thwarted an attempt to place explosive devices near the Syrian border fence late Sunday night.

“Special forces that were carrying out an ambush near an IDF post in the southern Golan Heights spotted a cell with a number of terrorists planting explosive devices along the border. An IDF force and an aircraft opened fire together on the four-member cell and hit them,” the IDF said, adding that no soldiers were harmed in the incident.

“We don’t know who sent them,” said IDF spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Hidai Zilberman on Monday. “There are a lot of players in Syria, some acting for Iran and some not. We cannot say right now that this is a Hezbollah attack, but we can’t rule it out either.”

Later on Monday, the IDF said during an investigation of the scene, some 25 meters from the perimeter fence inside Israeli territory, weapons and a bag containing a number of explosive devices were found.

The foiled attack took place near an abandoned military post in the southern Golan Heights on the Syrian border where the IDF operated the Mazor Ladach field clinic, which was opened in August 2017 and closed a year later, Zilberman told reporters.