Syrian Tanks Enter Israeli Frontier Zone

As Islamic militants attack strategic government airbase
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Nov 3, 2012 3:25 PM CDT
Syrian Tanks Enter Israeli Frontier Zone
In this Friday, Nov. 02, 2012 photo, a rebel fighter walks across the debris in Karm al-Jebel after days of intense clashes in Aleppo, the Syria.   (Narciso Contreras)

Three Syrian tanks entered the demilitarized zone in the Golan Heights today, Israel said, raising concerns violence from Syria's civil war could heat up a long-quiet frontier that has not seen such an incursion in nearly 40 years. Israel complained to UN peacekeepers present in the area, a relatively low-key response that suggested it did not see the Syrian armor as an immediate threat. But the entry marks the most serious spillover of Syria's turmoil to date at the frontier, where stray ordnance has exploded on the Israeli side in the past.

Meanwhile Islamic militants took part in a dawn assault on a strategic airbase in the north of the country. The attack, reported by activists, aimed to disrupt strikes by government warplanes and helicopters that are pounding rebel-held towns. Anti-regime activist group The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack on the Taftanaz air base continued into the evening, although Syria's state-run SANA news agency said the fighting was over and government troops had repelled a "terrorist attack." (More Syrian uprising stories.)

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