Syrian Observatory: Israeli Strike on Golan Town Kills 2 Hizbullah Fighters
An Israeli air strike on a government-held village on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights ceasefire line killed five pro-regime forces, including two Hizbullah members, a monitoring group said on Wednesday.
"An Israeli plane hit a car inside the town of Hader, killing two men from Hizbullah, and three men from the pro-regime popular committees in the town," said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Hader is a Druze village that lies along the ceasefire line, with the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights plateau to the west, and the border with Damascus province to the northeast.
An Israeli army spokeswoman declined to comment on the incident.
According to Hizbullah's al-Manar TV, "two members of Syria's National Defense Forces were killed when an Israeli drone targeted their car at the entrance of Hader, in Quneitra province."
The National Defense Forces has fighters operating throughout Syria.
Hizbullah is a close ally of the Syrian government and has dispatched fighters to bolster the army against the uprising that began in March 2011.
Rebel fighters, including Islamists, surrounded the village of Hader on June 17 after fierce clashes with a loyalist militia in the area.
Israel's own significant Druze minority has expressed concern that their brethren in Syria would be targeted by rebels there.
In January, an Israeli raid in Quneitra killed a high-ranking Iranian military official, Jihad Mughniyeh, who was a prominent Hizbullah member, and five others.
The young Mughniyeh is the son of Imad Mughniyeh, a top Hizbullah operative who was assassinated in 2008 in Damascus in a bombing that the party blamed on Israel.
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Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
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