Israel hits Iranian targets in Syria

Retaliation for barrage of missiles fired on Golan Heights

BEIRUT — The Israeli military on Thursday said it attacked Iran’s military installations in Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the occupied Golan Heights, in the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date.

Israel said the targets of the strikes, its largest in Syria since the 1973 war, included weapons storage, logistics sites and intelligence centres used by elite Iranian forces in Syria. It also said it destroyed Syrian air-dehighly fence systems after coming under heavy fire.

The White House condemned Iran’s “provocative rocket attacks from Syria against Israeli citizens” and expressed strong support for “Israel’s right to act in self-defence,” while Russia said the Israeli strikes marked a dangerous escalation, urging both Israel and Iran to avoid provoking each other.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said “the Iranian regime’s deployment into Syria of offensive rocket and missile systems aimed at Israel is an unacceptable and dangerous development for the entire Middle East.”

Israel has acknowledged carrying out 100 airstrikes in neighbouring Syria since the civil war erupted in 2011, most believed to be aimed at suspected Iranian weapons shipments bound for the Hezbollah militant group. But Israel has shifted to a more direct and public confrontation with Iran, striking at Iranian bases, weapons depots and rocket launchers across Syria, and killing Iranian troops. Israel accuses Tehran of seeking to establish a foothold on its doorstep. Iran has vowed to retaliate.