Syrian mortars land inside Israel

Three errant mortar shells from Syria hit the Golan Heights Sunday evening, causing no injuries.

By Lauren Calin, World Israel News

UN peacekeepers enter Syria from Israel. (Flash 90)

Three mortar shells from Syria landed inside Israel in the Golan Heights Sunday evening. Israel believes the mortars were misfired as part of the Syrian civil war. Earlier this month, two UN peacekeepers were killed by mortar fire from Syria.

The mortars fell near the town of Alonei HaBashan at around 6:20 PM. No sirens went off, and there were no injuries reported. The incident is not the first time that stray mortars from Syria have landed in Israel over the course of the fighting. On May 4, two UN peacekeepers were injured while patrolling in the Golan Heights.

No Israelis have yet been injured by the mortars, which the IDF has generally chalked up to poor marksmanship by fighters in Syria. However, there have been several occasions where Israel has accused Syria of aiming at Israeli targets, and the IDF returned fire. When necessary, the IDF also attacked Hezbollah weapons convoys. In one incident, Israeli drone fire killed an Iranian general and Jihad Mughniyeh, son of leading Hezbollah terrorist Imad Mughniyeh who was assassinated in a joint Mossad-CIA operation.

The regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has suffered a number of setbacks against rebel forces in recent weeks. In the south, a coalition calling itself the Southern Front unified its control over much of Deraa Province. The rebels could continue to advance northward in the direction of Damascus. In the north, the Army of Conquest captured the provincial capital of Idlib and most of Jisr al-Sughour, which sits on a vital supply route to Latakia on the coast.

Golan HeightsHezbollahIDFSyriaSyrian Civil War