Israeli aircraft have struck a machine gun-mounted vehicle inside Syria, killing four Islamic State-affiliated militants inside after they had opened fire on a military patrol on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights.
Israel has been largely unaffected by the Syrian civil war raging next door, suffering only sporadic incidents of spillover fire over the frontier that Israel has generally dismissed as tactical errors of the Assad regime.
Israel has responded to these cases lightly, with limited reprisals on Syrian positions in response to the errant fire.
But Sunday’s event, in the southern part of the Golan Heights, appears to be a rare case of an intentional shooting ambush by Islamic militants targeting Israeli troops.
Lt Col Peter Lerner said the Israeli patrol came under machine gun and mortar fire early on Sunday.
They returned fire toward Syria before an Israeli aircraft engaged, striking the vehicle in question and killing its passengers.
Read the full article by Associated Press at The Courier Mail.