Israeli raid in southern Syrian village kills 13, Syrian state media reports

JERUSALEM/DAMASCUS - Thirteen people were killed in an Israeli raid in southern Syria on Friday, Syrian state media reported, with Damascus accusing Israel of a "criminal attack" in a village where Israel said its troops came under fire during an operation to arrest militants.

The Israeli military said six soldiers were wounded, three of them severely, by militant fire during the raid in the village of Beit Jinn. 

The casualty tolls suggest the Israeli raid spiralled into one of the deadliest since President Bashar al-Assad was toppled a year ago.

Israel frequently bombed Syria when it was ruled by Assad and stepped up its military operations in the country after he was ousted, citing goals that include keeping militants away from the frontier.

The Israeli military said its troops had launched an operation to detain suspects belonging to Jama'a Islamiya - a Lebanese Sunni Islamist group which fired rockets at Israel from Lebanon during the Gaza war - accusing them of involvement in "terrorist plots". The military described the raid as part of routine operations in the area in recent months. 

Reuters couldn't immediately reach Jama'a Islamiya officials for comment.

VIOLENT CLASHES

Syrian state news agency SANA, which reported 13 people killed and dozens wounded, said Israeli forces shelled Beit Jinn at 3:40 a.m. (0140 GMT) and Israeli troops entered the village. Residents confronted the Israeli forces, which responded, leading to "violent clashes", it added.

The Israeli military said "armed terrorists" fired on its troops, and they responded with fire "along with aerial assistance". 

"A number of terrorists were eliminated," it said.

Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said Israel would not allow "terrorism and terrorist elements to entrench themselves on our borders", and that three people suspected "of involvement in terrorist plots" had been arrested on Friday.

The Israeli military accused them of planting improvised explosive devices and "planning future attacks on Israel including rocket fire".

DAMASCUS CALLS RAID A 'FULL-FLEDGED WAR CRIME'

Syria's foreign ministry said the Israeli attack killed more than 10 civilians including women and children, damaged property and forced residents to flee their homes, accusing Israel of committing a "full-fledged war crime" and warning the strikes threatened security and stability in the region.

Asked for comment on the Syrian ministry's statement, a spokesperson for Israel's prime minister's office referred Reuters to the Israeli military statement on the raid, which didn't mention the foreign ministry's accusation.

Walid Akasha, a local official in Beit Jinn, denied there were any terrorist factions there.

"We're a peaceful, civilian population, farmers. We have a legitimate right to defend ourselves. We didn't attack them first - they came onto our land," he told Reuters by phone.

Akasha said seven people had been taken from the village in an earlier raid in June, since when they had received no news about them. In an incursion on June 12, the Israeli military arrested what it said were members of Palestinian militant group Hamas and transferred them to Israel for further questioning.

Syria's interior ministry said at the time that the seven men were civilians.

UN CONDEMNS INCURSION

Najat Rochdi, the U.N.'s Deputy Special Envoy for Syria, condemned Israel's incursion as "a grave and unacceptable violation of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity, further destabilizing an already fragile environment."

Syrian and Israeli officials have met a half-dozen times for U.S.-brokered talks on a security deal to bring stability to the border region but negotiations have been frozen since September.

Israel has voiced deep suspicion of Syria's new government led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al Qaeda commander, and has said it wants a demilitarised southern Syria. 

Sharaa has said Syria does not pose a threat to any state.

Israeli military action in Syria has included several interventions with the declared aim of protecting members of Syria's Druze minority, notably during violence in Sweida province in July that pitted Sunni Muslim Bedouin fighters and government forces against Druze fighters.

Israel has moved troops and military equipment past a 1974 buffer zone and into southern Syria, including the strategic viewpoint of Mount Hermon. REUTERS