Senior Israeli military sources reported that the Israeli army located ten anti-personnel mines that were allegedly thrown by Syrians into Israel on Saturday afternoon. Military sappers arrived in the area to neutralize the mines, and Israel said it would file a UN complaint.The army said that Syria is directly responsible for the incident even if it has personal motivations.
The military report was released on Saturday night; it revealed that the located mines were in fact planted by Israel east of the security fence, but inside the Israeli area, according to the report.
The Israeli news reported that along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon there is a small gap between the Israeli fence marking the border and the international border. The gap is used by Israel as a “buffer zone”.
According to the Israeli army, the mines were extricated and thrown west of the fence on the Israeli side, and that six of them landed on roads used by the army in patrolling the border area.
The Ynetnews reported that the mines were found north of the Golan River, south of the Golan Heights and that the Israeli Air Force patrolled the area on Saturday morning but did not notice them.
The mines were found by an afternoon patrol, the Ynetnews added,
Meanwhile, Israel said that it would file a complaint to the United Nations, and that the Syrian government must prevent such incidents that “may lead to graver consequences”.
Israel increased its military patrols along the northern borders following the recent war in Lebanon. Israeli officials stated that this measure was carried out since the “Syrians might chose to open an additional front in combating Israel”.
After the war, the army continued to man the Golan Heights area in a larger scale although Israel lowered the alert level three months after the war ended.
Israel said that Syria was recently armed with advanced Russian weapons, and places the “Syrian threat” in every security debriefing session.
Some Israeli sources believe that the Resistance Committees for the Liberation of the Golan Heights is likely to be involved in the mines issue.
The group was formed with the aim of launching a guerilla war against Israel, security sources stated.
The Committees announced recently that it is holding an Israeli soldier who went missing in the Golan in August 17, 1997. Israel did not confirm the report yet, but said that the soldier had been missing since then.
