Israeli warplanes bomb series of targets inside Syria

PanARMENIAN.Net - Israeli warplanes bombed a series of targets inside Syria early Monday, June 23, the Israeli military said, in response to a cross-border attack that killed an Israeli teenager the previous day, the Associated Press reports.

In all, Israel said it struck nine military targets inside Syria, and "direct hits were confirmed." The targets were located near the site of Sunday's violence in the Golan Heights and included a regional military command center and unspecified "launching positions." There was no immediate response from Syria.

In Sunday's attack, an Israeli civilian vehicle was struck by forces in Syria as it drove in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. A teenage boy was killed and two other people were wounded in the first deadly incident along the volatile Israeli-Syrian front since Syria's civil war erupted more than three years ago. The Israeli vehicle was delivering water as it was doing contract work for Israel's Defense Ministry when it was struck.

"Yesterday's attack was an unprovoked act of aggression against Israel, and a direct continuation to recent attacks that occurred in the area," said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman. He said the military "will not tolerate any attempt to breach Israel's sovereignty and will act in order to safeguard the civilians of the state of Israel."

It was not immediately clear whether Syrian troops or one of the many rebel groups battling the government carried out Sunday's deadly attack in the Golan. But Lerner said it was clear that the attack was intentional. Israel has repeatedly said it holds the Syrian government responsible for any attacks emanating from its territory, regardless of who actually carries them out.

The incident occurred in the area of Tel Hazeka, near the Quneitra crossing. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian troops had shelled nearby targets on the Syrian border earlier in the day.

Israeli police identified the boy as Mohammed Karaka, 14, of the Arab village of Arraba in northern Israel. Local media said he had accompanied his father, the truck driver, to work.

Late Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he spoke to the boy's father and sent his condolences. "Our enemies don't differentiate between Jews and non-Jews, adults and children," he told an international gathering of Jewish journalists, according to the AP.

In his address, Netanyahu said in conflicts like Syria, where al Qaeda-inspired extremists are battling Iranian-backed Syrian troops, there is no good choice and it is best for Israel to sit back and let its enemies weaken each other. "This is a fault line between civilization and savagery," he said.