Hezbollah Says Israeli Helicopter Strike Killed Five Fighters in Syria
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Version 0 of 1. BEIRUT, Lebanon — An Israeli helicopter strike in Syria killed five Hezbollah fighters on Sunday, including the son of the group’s slain military commander, Imad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah said as a member briefed on the episode described the attack as a provocative move by Israel. The attack threatened to rekindle fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group and political party. Tensions between the two set off a deadly war in 2006 but have, in recent years, taken a back seat to the civil war in neighboring Syria, where Hezbollah is fighting to prevent the overthrow of a crucial ally, President Bashar al-Assad. During nearly four years of war there, Israel has bombed Syrian territory several times, targeting weapons storehouses and convoys said to be bound for Hezbollah, without provoking retaliation from the group. But with a direct strike on Hezbollah fighters on the ground in Syria, the Hezbollah member said, “They are trying to modify the rules of engagement, and Hezbollah will never allow that.” The attack, targeting two vehicles traveling in the Syrian portion of the Golan Heights, came days after Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said Israeli strikes in Syria constituted serious aggression and that Syria and its allies had a right to respond. The Hezbollah member, who was not authorized to make an official statement, said the strike drew intense interest because among those killed was Jihad Imad Mughniyeh, 25, whose father was assassinated in 2008 in Syria, presumably by Israel. Israeli officials refused to comment, maintaining their usual policy of ambiguity regarding attacks on Syrian turf, intended to stave off retaliation by allowing adversaries to save face. Agence France-Presse, however, cited an unidentified Israeli security source who said that an Israeli helicopter carried out the strike against “terrorists” in the Syrian sector of the Golan Heights, saying they were preparing an attack against Israel. Citing unnamed Western intelligence sources, two Israeli news outlets, Haaretz and Ynet, said the younger Mr. Mughniyeh headed a militant network that had already operated against Israel in the Golan Heights and that Mr. Mughniyeh was planning attacks aimed at killing Israeli soldiers and civilians. The Hezbollah member said Mr. Mughniyeh was a rank-and-file fighter whose importance was mainly symbolic. Israel’s strike on Hezbollah fighters in Syria, or any attempt by those fighters to target Israel, would be a shift from the two enemies’ tacit agreement not to escalate tensions with each other at a time when each has other security concerns. Southern Syria is a complicated, volatile battleground, an unpredictable mix of alliances, where Qaeda-affiliated fighters operate within sight of Israel without attacking it, choosing instead to battle Hezbollah. Western-backed insurgents, whose fighters have been allowed into Israel-controlled territory for treatment, sometimes coordinate with the Qaeda-linked Nusra Front. Nusra’s recent advances in the area have alarmed Hezbollah because Nusra has carried out attacks on Hezbollah’s Shiite supporters in Lebanon. Syria’s information minister, Omran al-Zoubi, said Sunday’s attack proved Israel was cooperating with Nusra, which the United States lists as a terrorist group. Moshe Yaalon, Israel’s defense minister, declined to comment on the strike, but told an Israeli radio station that considering Mr. Nasrallah had recently denied the group’s presence in the Golan Heights, “he has some explaining to do.” With Hezbollah devoting significant resources to Syria, Israeli strategists may believe that they have more room to maneuver without drawing retaliation. Mr. Nasrallah said on Friday that Hezbollah was stronger than ever. For hours on Sunday, Al Manar, Hezbollah’s television network, broadcast martial songs. In southern Lebanon, Hezbollah fighters and United Nations peacekeepers were on heightened alert. On social media, loyalists quickly commemorated the slain fighters, calling them martyrs. Hezbollah also said that among the dead was Mohammad Ahmed Issa, 42, said to be a leading commander. The Hezbollah member said an Iranian had also been killed, fueling speculation that Iranian military figures were present. It was not immediately clear whether the strike targeted specific individuals, said Prof. Eyal Zisser, a Tel Aviv University expert on Syria and Lebanon, but he said that Mr. Mughniyeh was well known to the Israelis. “When you put a helicopter in the air there is not likely to be anything coincidental about it,” Professor Zisser said. In addition to several attacks on weapons headed for Hezbollah, Israel has retaliated with what it calls pinpoint strikes at sources of fire from Syria into the Israeli-occupied part of the Golan Heights. (Israel seized part of the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 war and annexed the area in a move that has not been recognized internationally.) But this is the first time since the Syrian civil war began that Israel has targeted a specific group of Hezbollah fighters in Syrian territory. Hezbollah, which fought a monthlong war against Israel in 2006, has struck Israel in recent months, laying several bombs along the border between Lebanon and the Israeli-held part of the Golan Heights, and injuring several Israeli soldiers on patrol. The Hezbollah member said that one such recent attack was in retaliation not for Israeli operations in Syria, but for an Israeli strike that killed a Hezbollah operative in southern Lebanon as he tried to dismantle an Israeli spy device. He said that Hezbollah had not used its new fighting positions in Syria to target Israelis. Yoav Galant, a former senior commander in the Israeli military who is running for Parliament, said the timing of such military actions is sometimes “not unconnected to election campaigns.” |