Israel says detained Iran-linked ‘terrorist cell’ in Syria

Israel’s military said on Wednesday it had apprehended members of an Iranian-backed “terrorist cell” in southern Syria, where state TV reported three arrested by Israeli troops.

Since the December overthrow of Syria’s longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes primarily on military sites and sent troops to carry out raids.

An Israeli military statement on Wednesday said that in a “targeted night-time” raid, troops “apprehended several terrorists” and seized weapons.

It said the operation targeted “a terrorist cell operated by Iran,” Israel’s arch-foe against which it had fought an unprecedented 12-day war last month.

Syrian state TV said an Israeli patrol “consisting of eight vehicles and around 40 soldiers arrested three individuals from the village of Al-Bassali” in the Quneitra area of southwest Syria bordering the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported an operation which “resulted in the arrest of three citizens of Palestinian origin.”

It said the people were inside a farm “at the time of the raid, without any clashes or intervention by (Syrian) military or security forces in the area.”

According to the Observatory, the overnight operation came two months after a relative of the three was arrested and transferred to an Israeli prison.

Since al-Assad’s fall, Israel has carried out strikes in Syria aimed at denying military assets to the interim administration.

It has also deployed troops across the demilitarized zone on the Syrian side of the armistice line that used to separate the opposing forces on the Golan, with Israeli troops regularly carrying out raids in southern Syria.

On June 12, Syria said the Israeli military killed one civilian and detained seven people during an overnight incursion, with the Israeli army saying it seized members of Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Israel said Monday it was “interested” in striking normalization agreements with Syria and neighboring Lebanon, but insisted the strategic Golan Heights -- which Israel seized from Syria in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognized by the United Nations -- would “remain part of” Israel under any peace accord.