Israel Strikes Syria after Projectile Lands in Golan Heights

The Israeli air force hit Syrian army positions on Thursday after fire from its war-wracked neighbor struck the Israeli-held zone of the Golan Heights, the Israeli military said.

It said the strike was in response to "a projectile" which landed on open ground on Wednesday, causing no injuries.

"Following the projectile fired from Syria yesterday, the Israel Air Force targeted Syrian armed forces mortar launchers in the northern Syrian Golan Heights," Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner said.

It was the second such incident in the past few days.

On Sunday Israel responded to Syrian mortar fire in the Golan with an air strike on what it described as "cannons of the Syrian regime."

On August 22, the air force hit what it said was a Syrian army rocket launcher in response to "stray fire from Syrian conflict."

There were similar events in July and previously.

This week's incidents were not characterized by Israel as stray fire.

Israel has sought to avoid being drawn into Syria's complex war which is now in its sixth year, but it has attacked Syrian military targets when fire from the conflict spills over.

Israel seized 1,200 square kilometers (460 square miles) of the Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognized by the international community.