Israel targets Syrian artillery

The Israeli military says its aircraft struck targets in Syria after a projectile hit the Israeli-controlled part of the Golan Heights.

“Following the projectile fired from Syria yesterday, the Israel Air Force targeted Syrian armed forces mortar launchers in the northern Syrian Golan Heights”, Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner said. The shell did not cause any injuries or damage.

Syrian state television quoted a Syrian military source as saying the Israeli strike was aimed at helping an offensive by hardline Islamist rebels who had launched an offensive against Syrian troops.

The global community considers the Golan Heights to be occupied territory and Israeli settlement-building there to be illegal. No injuries were reported in any of the incidents.

Syria has continuously accused the Israeli occupation and its Western and regional allies of aiding Takfiri militant groups operating inside the Arab country.

The overnight airstrike came after a Syrian mortar, apparently a spillover from the fighting in Syria, exploded in an open field in the Golan Heights.

“The IDF holds the Syrian government accountable for this blatant breach of Israeli sovereignty, and will continue to act in order to safeguard Israel”, the army said in a statement. A similar incident took place Thursday.

Golan belongs to Syria, and Israel’s occupation of around 1,200 square kilometers (460 square miles) of the territory during the 1967 Six-Day War and its later annexation have never been recognized by the global community.