Israeli PM: Airstrikes dealt ' severe blows' to Iran, Syria

JERUSALEM » Israel's prime minis-ter said Sunday his country delivered "severe blows" to Iranian and Syrian forces and vowed to take further ac-tion against its adversaries following the most serious Israeli engagement in Syria since the war there erupted almost seven years ago.

Benjamin Netanyahu's tough words to his Cabinet came a day af-ter Israel carried out a wave of air-strikes in Syria. Israel ordered the airstrikes after it intercepted an Ira-nian drone that had infiltrated its airspace, and an Israeli F-16 was downed upon its return from Syria.

"Yesterday we dealt severe blows to the Iranian and Syrian forces," Ne-tanyahu said. "We made it unequivo-cally clear to everyone that our rules of action have not changed one bit. We will continue to strike at every at-tempt to strike at us. This has been our policy and it will remain our pol-icy."

Israeli leaders said the airstrikes sent a clear message to Iran.