Israel strikes back at Syria

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

This image taken from video obtained from Shaam News Network, shows Syrians inspecting the damage and looking for victims moments after an airstrike by Syrian warplanes in Ras al-Ayn, Syria, Monday, Nov. 12, 2012. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network via AP video)

An Israeli tank struck a Syrian army vehicle Monday after a mortar shell landed on Israeli-held territory, the military said, in the first direct confrontation between the countries since the Syrian uprising broke out, sharpening fears that Israel could be drawn into the civil war next door.

Israel has steadfastly tried to avoid getting sucked into the Syrian conflict, but it has grown increasingly worried after a series of mortar shells have struck territory in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights in recent days. On Sunday, Israel fired a "warning shot" into Syria in response to the shelling.

The conflict has already spilled over into several of Syria's other neighbours whether in direct violence or in the flood of refugees fleeing Syria's bloodshed. On Monday, a Syrian fighter jet bombed a rebel-held area hugging the border with Turkey three times, killing more than a dozen people and bringing a protest from the Turkish government.

Potential Israeli involvement in Syria could be far more explosive. Open hostilities between Israel and Syria could have wide-ranging consequences, dragging in Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrilla group and perhaps Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip on Israel's southern flank.

Israeli military officials say they believe the mortar fire landing in the Golan is not an overt attempt to hit the Jewish state and is likely accidental as Syrian President Bashar Assad's army battle rebel forces trying to oust him.

But Israeli officials have begun to question that assessment and are now exploring whether any of the cross-border fire has been intentional. Israeli officials have long feared that the embattled Assad might try to draw Israel into the fighting in an act of desperation.

In a statement, the military said Israeli tanks targeted the "source of fire" in Syria after the mortar shell landed in an open area of the Golan Heights. It confirmed "direct hits" on the targets.

Israeli military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity under army guidelines, said an army vehicle carrying "Syrian mobile artillery" was hit. There was no immediate word on casualties on the Syrian side, but Israeli officials said the vehicle was believed to belong to the Syrian government.

The incident began when Syrian military units were shelling gunmen in the Syrian village of Bariqa, which lies only several hundred meters from the frontier with the Israeli-held Golan. An Associated Press photographer on the Golan side saw gunmen, presumably rebels, running as explosions shook the village from the shelling by Syrian army mobile artillery visible about a mile away (2 kilometres).

The rebels fired back with automatic weapons, then fled, running toward the Golan border and taking refuge under some trees. A few minutes later, the rebels made their way back to the village. Bursts of artillery fire could be heard every few minutes, and about a half hour later, the Syrian shell struck the Golan, making a loud whistling sound before impact.

A number of mortar shells have landed in the Golan over the past week, and early this month, Syrian tanks accidentally crossed into a buffer zone along the frontier of the Golan for the first time in nearly 40 years. Israel captured the Golan, a strategic plateau, from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and subsequently annexed it.

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Federman reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Suzan Frazer in Ankara, Turkey, and Mehmet Guzel in Ceylanpinar, Turkey, contributed to this report.