JERUSALEM: Israel struck what it said were Iranian targets in Syria early Monday sparking concerns of an escalation after a monitor reported 11 fighters killed.
Israel announced the strikes against facilities it said belonged to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards´ Quds Force as they were occurring, continuing its recent practice of speaking more openly about such raids.
It said the strikes were in response to a medium-range, surface-to-surface missile the Quds Force fired from Syria at the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Sunday, which Israeli air defences intercepted.
"We saw that as an unacceptable attack by the Iranian troops, not proxies, not Shiite militias, not Syrian forces, Iranian troops firing an Iranian-made missile from the vicinity of Damascus towards sovereign Israel," Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus told journalists.