Syrian Rebels Seize Border Crossing in the Golan
Written by : Mohamed Abdel Fattah
28 August 2014
Rebel factions in Syria, including an al Qaeda affiliate, captured a border crossing on the line dividing Syria from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel's military and Syrian opposition activists said on Wednesday.
The move could bring Islamist forces within 200 yards of territory controlled by Israel.
The UN peacekeeping force which monitors the armistice line said several mortar rounds struck near its positions as rebel fighters, including some from Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front, stormed the crossing in deadly fighting with government troops.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group based in Britain that gathers information from contacts inside Syria, said the fighting killed at least 20 government soldiers and an unknown number of the attackers.
During the fighting, two Israelis were wounded by stray bullets, a soldier and a civilian, both in the Golan Heights. Israel responded with artillery fire at two Syrian army positions, the Israeli military said. It was the latest spillover of violence from the three-year conflict.
Yaakov Amidror, a former Israeli national security adviser, said reports of the Nusra Front taking control of the Quneitra crossing could be “very significant” if the group managed to link that position to its stronghold in Dara’a, in southern Syria, and other areas.
The developments raised questions over whether President Bashar al-Assad's regime is so weakened by Syria's more than three-year civil war that it cannot defend strategic areas.
The radical Islamic State group, which has swept across northern Syria and Iraq in recent months, was not involved in the takeover of the crossing. The group is not known to have a presence in the Golan area.
The Islamist groups are the most powerful rebel groups in Syria, with the Nusra Front and the Islamic State in the lead; they fight each other at times, and both also fight against others in the opposition camp.
Syrian opposition activists said rebels launched the offensive on the Quneitra crossing early on Wednesday and that at least eight factions took part, including units of the Western-backed Free Syrian Army, the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and other allied Islamist groups.
More Islamists flocked to the area in July after the Islamic State ousted the Nusra Front and other rivals from the eastern province of Deir Ezzour, activists say.
Video from the scene showed heavy smoke rising from the Syrian side of the crossing. A journalist working with CNN said that heavy shelling and gunfire erupted earlier from the Syrian side but that the situation had since calmed.
ISIS forces on Sunday took over a military base in northern Syria, cementing its control of its self-declared Islamic State spanning the Syria-Iraq border. A day later, Syria’s foreign minister said his government was ready to cooperate with international efforts to confront ISIS.
Israel, seized 1,200 square kilometres (460 square miles) of the Golan Heights during the 1967 Six-Day War with Syria
and technically Israel at war with Syria ,later Israel's annexation of the area has never been recognized internationally.
Israel has avoided taking sides in the war, but has responded when the violence has spilled across the border. Israel says it holds the Syrian government responsible for any violence that emanates from its territory.
Since the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011, the tense has been growing number of rockets and mortar rounds hitting the Israeli side, mostly stray, prompting occasional armed responses.
Sources
abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/israeli-officer-wounded-fire-syria-25141007
www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/syrian-rebels-capture-sole-border-crossing-between-israel-and-syria-in-golan-heights/2014/08/27/529a3be5-2ac5-4656-bf8c-62dd7bfbc4d0_story.html
www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/27/us-syria-crisis-israel-idUSKBN0GR18M20140827
28 August 2014
Rebel factions in Syria, including an al Qaeda affiliate, captured a border crossing on the line dividing Syria from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel's military and Syrian opposition activists said on Wednesday.
The move could bring Islamist forces within 200 yards of territory controlled by Israel.
The UN peacekeeping force which monitors the armistice line said several mortar rounds struck near its positions as rebel fighters, including some from Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front, stormed the crossing in deadly fighting with government troops.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group based in Britain that gathers information from contacts inside Syria, said the fighting killed at least 20 government soldiers and an unknown number of the attackers.
During the fighting, two Israelis were wounded by stray bullets, a soldier and a civilian, both in the Golan Heights. Israel responded with artillery fire at two Syrian army positions, the Israeli military said. It was the latest spillover of violence from the three-year conflict.
Yaakov Amidror, a former Israeli national security adviser, said reports of the Nusra Front taking control of the Quneitra crossing could be “very significant” if the group managed to link that position to its stronghold in Dara’a, in southern Syria, and other areas.
The developments raised questions over whether President Bashar al-Assad's regime is so weakened by Syria's more than three-year civil war that it cannot defend strategic areas.
The radical Islamic State group, which has swept across northern Syria and Iraq in recent months, was not involved in the takeover of the crossing. The group is not known to have a presence in the Golan area.
The Islamist groups are the most powerful rebel groups in Syria, with the Nusra Front and the Islamic State in the lead; they fight each other at times, and both also fight against others in the opposition camp.
Syrian opposition activists said rebels launched the offensive on the Quneitra crossing early on Wednesday and that at least eight factions took part, including units of the Western-backed Free Syrian Army, the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and other allied Islamist groups.
More Islamists flocked to the area in July after the Islamic State ousted the Nusra Front and other rivals from the eastern province of Deir Ezzour, activists say.
Video from the scene showed heavy smoke rising from the Syrian side of the crossing. A journalist working with CNN said that heavy shelling and gunfire erupted earlier from the Syrian side but that the situation had since calmed.
ISIS forces on Sunday took over a military base in northern Syria, cementing its control of its self-declared Islamic State spanning the Syria-Iraq border. A day later, Syria’s foreign minister said his government was ready to cooperate with international efforts to confront ISIS.
Israel, seized 1,200 square kilometres (460 square miles) of the Golan Heights during the 1967 Six-Day War with Syria
and technically Israel at war with Syria ,later Israel's annexation of the area has never been recognized internationally.
Israel has avoided taking sides in the war, but has responded when the violence has spilled across the border. Israel says it holds the Syrian government responsible for any violence that emanates from its territory.
Since the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011, the tense has been growing number of rockets and mortar rounds hitting the Israeli side, mostly stray, prompting occasional armed responses.
Sources
abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/israeli-officer-wounded-fire-syria-25141007
www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/syrian-rebels-capture-sole-border-crossing-between-israel-and-syria-in-golan-heights/2014/08/27/529a3be5-2ac5-4656-bf8c-62dd7bfbc4d0_story.html
www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/27/us-syria-crisis-israel-idUSKBN0GR18M20140827
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