An air strike in Syria allegedly carried out by Israel on Sunday killed a Hezbollah commander and another four fighters of the Lebanese Shiite milita.
Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of Imad Mughniyeh, a top Hezbollah operative assassinated in 2008 in Damascus, was among the five fighters killed in the strike. Hezbollah-run 'al-Manar' TV warned that Israel was "playing with fire that puts the security of the whole Middle East on edge." Israel's military did not comment on Sunday's incident.
Mughniyeh has been one of the most prominent Hezbollah officials to die in Syria since the group entered the fray in 2012, fighting alongside President Bashar Assad's forces against the Sunni-led rebellion. Sunday's strike targeted two Hezbollah vehicles as fighters were inspecting positions in the Golan Heights, close to the Israeli-controlled frontier, in an area known as Mazrat al-Amal. Hezbollah's media wing said "a number" of fighters were killed, but did not provide names.
"While a group of Hezbollah fighters were on a field inspection of the town, Mazrat al-Amal... They faced rocket shelling from helicopters of the Israeli enemy, leading to the martyrdom of a number of holy warrior brothers, whose names will be announced once their honorable families have been informed," it said.
Israel and Hezbollah fought a devastating war in 2006, but since then have largely shied away from direct confrontation. But on Thursday Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah boasted that the group's rockets could hit any part of Israel and threatened to invade the Galilee region of northern Israel in the next war between the two bitter foes.
