Roundup: Israeli airstrike kills 6 Hezbollah fighters

An Israeli helicopter on Sunday fired two rockets from the Israel-occupied Golan Heights toward a southern Syrian town, killing six Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, including several senior commanders of the military group, according to local press.

Israel attacked the Mazrat al-Amal town in Quniatera, Syria's national TV reported, leaving a child critically wounded.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah's media body confirmed the deaths of its members in the airstrike.

"The strike resulted in the martyrdom of a number of jihadist brothers, whose names will be announced later, after informing their honorable families," it said in a statement.

Earlier on Sunday, the Lebanese al-Manar TV also confirmed that Israel launched an airstrike on the Hezbollah fighters inspecting the town of Mazrat al-Amal.

The pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV said Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of late field commander Emad Mughniyeh, was killed in the Israeli attack.

Jihad Mughniyeh was recently appointed the commander of Hezbollah fighters in Syria's Golan region, where Syrian rebel forces and government troops have battled fiercely for control.

Emad Mughniyeh, a prominent leader and founder of Hezbollah in the 1980s, was killed in 2008 by a car bomb in a neighborhood of Damascus, which the Shiite military group blamed on Israel.

Hezbollah fighters in towns and villages along the border with Israel went on high alert, said an official of the group. Residents emptied the streets in this region, as they feared the situation might deteriorate quickly.

The leader of Hezbollah, Sheikh Hasan Nasrallah, raised his rhetoric and threatened to respond to any Israeli attack, saying that Hezbollah is still strong and ready at any time despite its long-running involvement in the Syrian war.

"Contrary to what the enemy thinks, the resistance is fully ready in southern Lebanon, and is ready to face any possibility," he told the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV in an interview this week.

Nasrallah announced that any Israeli aggression on Syrian targets would be considered as "targeting the resistance axis" (the allies of Iran, Syria and Hezbollah) and retaliation could happen at any time.

"Nobody said that attacks on Syria will remain without any retaliation, this is the right of the resistance and not Syria's right alone," he said.

While Hezbollah warned Israel about full-scale retaliation, the response from Israel's military was flat and standard: "The army does not comment on foreign reports."

In an interview with Israeli media, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon refused to comment on the reports but said, "Hezbollah should explain what it's doing on Syrian soil." Endi