Israel returns fire after gunshots from Syria

JERUSALEM - The Israeli military fired missiles into Syria after its troops got shot on a patrol near the Syrian frontier on the Golan Heights, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement Tuesday.

There were no casualties on the Israeli side but a military vehicle was damaged in the incident, the statement said.

Israeli media said an artillery unit fired across the Syrian frontier some Tammuz missiles which, they claimed, destroyed the Syrian army position responsible for the gunfire on the plateau that Israel captured in the 1967 war.

Aircraft and other forces assisted in locating the Syrian target, the Ynet news site said, adding that the IDF thought the gunfire was intentional and decided to fire back.

"They fired on our patrol. It's the third time that this happened in a week, at the same place and same time," a defense source told The Jerusalem Post.

The IDF said it had lodged complaints with the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force stationed in the area that monitors the cease-fire agreement between Israel and Syria.