Israel struck nine Syrian targets in response to boy’s death, and as a boost for the rebel bid for Quneitra

DEBKAfile Special Report June 23, 2014, 3:36 AM (IDT)

Tags:  Israel Air Force,  Syrian army,  Golan,  rocket,  Quneitra,  Syrian rebels,

Spke guided missile system (Tamuz)

Israel carried out nine strikes against Syrian military targets after midnight Monday, June 23, in retaliation for the Kornet rocket attack which killed an Israeli boy and injured two others a few hours earlier. They were conducted by air strikes and Spike NLOS anti-tank missiles (Tamuz), against Syrian firing positions, its 90th Brigade command center in Quneitra and three battalions. 

 

The IDF Spokesman called the strikes a direct response to ongoing cross-border aggression which culminated in Sunday's deadly missile attack.

The deadly rocket attack was fired from a Syrian army position in the village of Ahmadiyeh outside the Golan town of Quneitra. It hit the truck in which Muhammad Karaka, 12, from the Galilee village of Arraba and his father Fahmi, a defense ministry contractor working on the Golan border fence at Tel Hazaka, were sitting. The boy was killed and his father and a worker injured.

The IDF said: “We identified precise hits on the targets,” following “the gravest provocation which followed a series of terrorist attacks in recent months against Israel military positions in the border region in general and this area in particular.”

debkafile’s military sources add: Israel took the opportunity for action that would break the standoff in the two-month battle for Quneitra between Syrian rebel and army forces. The Syrian army’s 90th Brigade has been defending the town against a rebel assault, reinforced by units trained and armed in Jordan by American instructors.

Last week rebel forces managed to overcome the Assad army’s main position holding the southern Syrian Deraa-Tel Jum’a line. They are expected now to take advantage of the weakening of the 90th Brigade by for a major push to win Quneitra. Israel almost certainly checked with the US command center near Amman and the Jordanian army before staging the multiple attack.

Our sources add that a small Hizballah advance unit was attached to the Syrian Quneitra unit.