Syria’s military launched a combined attack against rebel-held areas in the southwestern part of the war-torn-country, by means of artillery and air-strikes. The attack, which according to Western intelligence sources is backed by Iranian-sponsored militias, comes in defiance of the United States, which reiterated its demand of the Assad regime to halt any assault on territories adjacent to the border-regions with Israel and Jordan, areas designated as ‘de-escalation zones’, under an agreement between Moscow and Washington.
A Syrian official told TV7 that unless rebels relinquish full control to Damascus and pledge fealty to President Bashar Assad, the Syrian Army will have no other choice but to forcefully uproot the militants, which he defined as “terrorists.” That said, the Syrian official emphasized that the Islamist organizations, which have clear ties to Al-Qaeda and control the Yarmouk area, a region that borders with both Israel and Jordan, will not receive any leniency and will be eradicated completely.
The Israeli military launched a patriot missile in the northern part of the Golan Heights, toward an unmanned aerial vehicle that was flying in the direction of Israel’s air-space. According to the IDF, the unidentified drone retreated unharmed, following the launching of the patriot-missile, returning to an area controlled by President Bashar Assad’s forces. According to a commander in the regional alliance supporting the Assad regime, “The unmanned aerial vehicle serves the Syrian Army in operations for intelligence gathering in southern Syria.” In response to the incident, the Israel Defense Forces warned that they “will not allow a violation of Israel’s sovereignty and will act against any attempt to harm its citizens,” while noting that the military’s “The air defense system, just like the detection system, identified the threat in advance, before it had crossed into Israeli territory,” and dealt with the threat immediately.