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
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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
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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