Five dead in new Israeli raid on Syria: state TV

Israeli military source says strikes targeted militants who fired rockets into Israel on Thursday

DAMASCUS: A new Israeli raid on Syrian-controlled territory in the Golan Heights killed at least five people on Friday, Syrian state television said, describing the dead as unarmed civilians.

An Israeli military source said the strikes targeted militants who fired rockets into Israel on Thursday.

"Aircraft of the Israeli enemy targeted a civilian car in the village of al-Kom, killing five unarmed civilians," Syrian state television said.

A reporter for state television in the Quneitra province where the raids took place said they occurred at 10:30 am (0730 GMT) and were carried out by a drone.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, also confirmed five people had been killed, saying two pro-regime militiamen were among them.

Friday's strikes came after Israel said it had hit at least 14 Syrian army position in the Golan Heights on Thursday in response to the rocket fire on the Galilee region in northern Israel.

An Israeli military source confirmed the Friday raids, saying "part of the squad responsible for firing the rockets yesterday was targeted and neutralised".

The source said the raids were believed to have killed four or five people.

He said the group targeted was "part of the (Palestinian militant group) Islamic Jihad in Syria, acting under the supervision of Iran."

Syrian state media reported two sets of Israeli raids on Thursday, saying the first hit local government buildings and caused damage but no deaths.

It said the second set of raids, late on Thursday evening, hit army positions and killed one person, without specifying if they were a soldier or civilian, and wounded seven soldiers.

The Observatory however said the second set of raids killed two soldiers and wounded another eight.

The Golan Heights plateau is divided between Israeli and Syrian control.

Israel seized 1,200 square kilometres of the plateau from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it 14 years later, in a move never recognised by the international community.