Israel says it carried out ground raid into Syria and seized man linked to Iran
It was the first time in the current Middle East conflict that Israel has announced sending troops into Syria.
The Israeli military has said it carried out a ground raid into Syria, seizing a Syrian citizen involved in Iranian networks.
It was the first time in the current Middle East conflict that Israel has announced sending troops into Syria.
Syria did not immediately confirm the announcement.
The army did not specify where in Syria the raid took place or when.
It identified the man it seized as Ali Soleiman al-Assi, saying he lives in the southern Syrian region of Saida.
It said he had been under military surveillance for many months and was involved in Iranian initiatives targeting areas of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights near the border with Syria.
Body camera footage of the raid released by the army showed soldiers seizing a man in a white tank top inside a building. The man was brought to Israel for interrogation, the military said.
Israel has carried out airstrikes in Syria multiple times over the past year, targeting members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and officials from Iran, the close ally of both Hezbollah and Syria. But it has not previously made public any ground forays into Syria.
The Israeli military said the seizure was part of a special operation “that took place in recent months”, though it did not say exactly when it occurred.
The disclosure of the raid comes as Israel has waged an escalated campaign of bombardment in Lebanon for the past six weeks, as well as a ground invasion along the countries’ shared border, vowing to cripple Hezbollah.
On Saturday, an Israeli military official said naval forces carried out a raid in a northern Lebanese town, seizing a man they called a senior Hezbollah operative.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the border with Lebanon on Sunday, saying his focus was trying to keep Hezbollah from rearming itself through the “oxygen lifeline” of Iranian weapons transferred to Lebanon via Syria.
Israel says its campaign in Lebanon aims to push Hezbollah away from the border and put an end to more than a year of fire by the group into northern Israel.
Israel’s strikes in Lebanon have killed more than 2,500 people over the past year. In Israel, 69 people have been killed by Hezbollah projectiles.
