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Israeli strikes Syrian army posts after mortar hits Golan Heights

Xinhua, September 10, 2016 Adjust font size:

Israel's air force said it struck Syrian army posts on Saturday, retaliating against a Syrian mortar that hit the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, in a third such incident in a week.

An Israel Air Force aircraft "targeted artillery positions of the Syrian regime," said an Israeli military statement, after a projectile launched from Syria hit the northern Golan Heights earlier Saturday.

The Israeli military said that the fire, causing no injuries or damage, was believed to be a spillover of the fighting in Syria, and accused the Syrian government of a "blatant breach of Israeli sovereignty."

Israel occupied the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed the territory in 1981.

Israel had repeatedly declared it would not intervene in the internal fighting in Syria, amid the Syrian civil war that broke out in 2011, but it did deliver medical treatment to hundreds of wounded Syrians who reached the Israeli border.

Israel had also been responsible for some airstrikes in Syria in the past several years, allegedly targeting convoys carrying weapons from Iran and Syria to the Lebanese Hezbollah militant organization, a staunch enemy of Israel.

The Jewish state remained quiet on its part on these attacks up until three months ago, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that Israel carried out "dozens" of attacks across the border with Syria. Endit