Geolocation
Airwars assessment
Two people were killed in alleged Israeli strikes on Al Ba’th city on June 24, 2017. Sources were conflicted as to whether the people killed were civilians or members of the Syrian army.
Khabar Agency reported that Israel struck Syrian army facilities after 10 shells were fired from the Syrian side of the border toward the Golan Heights. Khabar also wrote that the Israeli military said that they had struck a tank that was preparing to fire a shell. However, according to a Syrian army source, an Israeli missile fell on a residential building, resulting in a number of civilian deaths and damage to the building.
Syrian Arab News Agency, the Syrian regime controlled news agency, accused the Israelis of supporting al-Nusra with their strikes and of firing rockets at “the Governorate parking lot and a residential building, claiming a number of lives and causing material damage”.
RT News reported that “the Israeli army instructed farmers and civilians near the Quneitra border crossing into Syria to avoid open fields”, according to Jerusalem Post, and that the Israeli retaliatory strikes came less than an hour after the spillover fire from Syria.
France 24 quoted the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as reporting that the Israeli raid resulted in the death of two Syrian soldiers. However, Haaretz News quoted the Al-Mayadeen Network as identifying at least two Syrian civilians as being killed in the attacks.
Financial Express described the fighting on the Syrian side of the border as being between rebel groups, including Islamist factions, and the Syrian regime, and the Israeli military referred to the shells the landed in Israel as “errant fire” that wasn’t intentionally launched at Israel.
The Israeli Defense Forces posted a statement on twitter that “in response to over 10 projectiles launched from Syria, IAF aircraft targeted origin of launches & 2 Syrian tanks”, acknowledging the strikes. They also published a video showing that they described as being “a site containing automatic weapons and two tanks being targeted and destroyed”.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
Summary
Sources (15) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (2) [ collapse]
Geolocation notes
Reports of the incident mention the surroundings of Al Ba’th (البعث) city. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further. The generic coordinates for Al Ba’th are: 33.170175, 35.870705.
Israeli Military Assessment:
Original strike reports
In response to over 10 projectiles launched from Syria, IAF aircraft targeted origin of launches & 2 Syrian tanks