Israel bombs Syrians on Golan Heights

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The targets included a Syrian military headquarters, a training

facility and artillery batteries. Aircraft carried out the attack early on Wednesday, said Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner, an Israeli military

spokesman. He described targets as military facilities on the

Syrian-held side of the Golan.

Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 war and annexed it

in a move not recognised abroad. Tuesday’s wounding of the soldiers as

they patrolled the separation line on the strategic plateau marked

Israel’s worst casualties there since an insurgency erupted in Syria

more than three years ago.

Israel blamed Damascus for the roadside bombing, though parts of the

Syrian-held side of the Golan are controlled by Islamist rebels. Israel says

Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas helping President Bashar al-Assad of Syria

battle the insurgency have a presence on the Golan.

Spillover violence on the Golan from the civil war has often drawn

Israeli return fire against Syrian positions, ending what had previously

been a stable, decades-old stand-off between the two sides.