Israel Increasingly Concerned over Fighting on Syrian Border

by Dan Lavie, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Syrian air force targets rebel strongholds near Quneitra crossing, taking care not to enter demilitarized airspace • Nusra Front demands ransom for 45 Fijian U.N. troops • Israel reportedly detonates spying device in Lebanon, killing Hezbollah member.

Fighting near the Syrian border with Israel over the weekend | Photo credit: Ancho Gosh/JINI

The fighting along the Syrian border with Israel continued over the weekend, with the al-Qaida-linked terror group Nusra Front overpowering Syrian President Bashar Assad's army and raising fears of the conflict's possible spillover into Israeli territory.

Nusra Front members waved their organization's flags atop vehicles belonging to U.N. peacekeepers they kidnapped last week, and are now demanding ransom for the 45 Fijian U.N. troops they are still holding. 

The Nusra Front threatened that unless payment is received, the troops will be "subjected to Islamic law" and will not be entitled to prisoner-of-war status, which would protect them from being killed. 

The Syrian rebels displayed their battle spoils, which included a wide range of weapons. They also took control of an abandoned hospital near the border, as well as the southern suburbs of Quneitra and a Syrian air force base.

The Nusra Front now poses a threat to Lebanon as well: One Lebanese soldier held captive by the organization said, "Every time that Hezbollah interferes with what is going on in Syria, there will be an explosion in Dahiyeh."

Meanwhile, Assad's army is stepping up efforts to regain control over the Quneitra border crossing from the Nusra Front. Al Jazeera reported on Saturday that the Syrian air force had attacked rebel strongholds in the area of the border crossing, focusing on Nusra Front targets. 

According to the report, Syrian air force jets carried out the attacks from a greater distance than usual to avoid entering demilitarized airspace between Syria and Israel.

Meanwhile, Israel remotely detonated a spying device planted in south Lebanon, killing a member of Hezbollah in the explosion, the group said Friday.

The Hezbollah-run television station Al-Manar said Hassan Ali Haidar was killed after army intelligence spotted a "strange device" in the village of Adloun. A jet detonated the device remotely after it was discovered, killing Haidar, it said.

The Lebanese army confirmed the incident, but said the dead man was a civilian. It said Israel detonated the device "from a distance" by way of an aircraft flying overhead. The device was planted on the militant group's telecommunications network.

The Israeli military declined to comment.

Lebanese and U.N. officials have accused Israel in the past of detonating similar surveillance devices planted in south Lebanon, where Hezbollah guerrillas operate. Hezbollah and Israel fought a fierce monthlong war in 2006.

Lebanese officials say Israel regularly recruits spies in Lebanon and has penetrated the nation's telecommunications networks. Israel does not comment on such allegations.

The two countries have been in a formal state of war since Israel was created in 1948.

Dan Lavie, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=19923

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