Israel strikes Syria after finding bombs along its frontier

Jerusalem: Israeli warplanes struck Iran-linked targets in Syria overnight after troops uncovered roadside bombs along the frontier in the Golan Heights, the Israeli military said Wednesday.

The military said the improvised explosive devices had been placed by “a Syrian squad led by Iranian forces.”

Israel said it struck military targets belonging to Iran’s elite Quds force and the Syrian military, including “storage facilities, headquarters and military compounds,” as well as Syrian anti-aircraft missile batteries.

Israel has launched hundreds of strikes against Iran-linked military targets in Syria over the years but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations.

Israel views Iran as its greatest threat and says it will not tolerate the establishment of a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria, especially near its borders.

Iran is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad in the country’s civil war and has dispatched military advisers and allied militias to aid his forces.

Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 war and later annexed it in a move not recognized internationally.