Israeli PM threatens more airstrikes on Iranian targets in Syria

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday threatened to carry out more airstrikes in Syria if Iran continues to maintain a military presence in Syria.

"We will not allow Iranian military entrenchment against us in Syria and we will not tolerate any attempt to attack us from Syrian territory," Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office hours after a deadly Israeli airstrike in Syria.

"This morning, the air force attacked significant Iranian Quds Force targets and Syrian military targets in Syria," the prime minister said, in a rare acknowledgment of Israeli airstrikes in Syria.

The airstrike was carried out as part of "a clear policy that I have been leading for years," Netanyahu noted.

"Whoever tries to attack us or attacks us will bear the consequences," he warned.

At least 10 Syrian soldiers and pro-government fighters were killed in airstrikes on Syrian military sites in the capital Damascus before dawn on Wednesday, the Britain-based watchdog Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

In recent years, Israel has conducted hundreds of airstrikes against Iranian-linked targets in Syria.