IDF finds several bombs on Golan border, says ‘Syrian regime responsible’

“We just exposed a number of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) near the Israeli side of the Alpha Line on the southern Golan Heights,” the IDF tweeted.

By Paul Shindman, WOrld Israel News

The IDF on Tuesday said troops discovered several bombs planted on the Israeli side of the Israel-Syria border and warned the Syrian government about the incident.

“We just exposed a number of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) near the Israeli side of the Alpha Line on the southern Golan Heights,” the IDF tweeted. “We hold the Syrian regime responsible for all events in Syria and will not tolerate any violation of our sovereignty.”

The Alpha Line is located in the 235-square-kilometer demilitarized buffer zone between Israel and Syria that is monitored by a special United Nations peacekeeping force. It is the west boundary of the zone that is about 80 kilometers (48 miles) long and ranges in width from half a kilometer to 10 kilometers. No Syrian forces are allowed past the Bravo line, on the eastern side of the zone.

The explosives were neutralized by combat engineers who had just wrapped up a training exercise simulating combat on the northern front, i24 News reported.

Earlier this month, the commander of an IDF division base on the Syrian border said that his forces had carried out several raids in October against Syrian military fortifications close to the Israel-Syria border. The Syrian army positions had been set up illegally in the neutral demilitarized buffer zone in violation of the ceasefire agreement signed by the two countries.

“Israel does not currently see any threat from Syria as a state,” said Brigadier General Roman Goffman, but it fears an increase in the concentration of fighters from Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group, which is known to be operating in the northern Golan Heights with the support of Iran.

“The biggest threat I see when I look at Syria’s borders is the establishment of a front line between Iran and Hezbollah in southern Syria against Israel. This is the most important threat. We do not see a threat in Syria because it represents a country that needs to work and rebuild itself,” Goffman said of the country that has been ravaged by a decade of civil war.

In August, the IDF thwarted another IED attack in the southern Golan Heights,  killing four terrorists who were planting a bomb along the border when they were spotted.