Shooting in Syria could mark a new phase in Israeli campaign

JERUSALEM (AP) – The death of a former Syrian Druse lawmaker, allegedly by Israeli sniper fire, could mark a new …

JERUSALEM (AP) – The death of a former Syrian Druse lawmaker, allegedly by Israeli sniper fire, could mark a new phase in what Israel calls its war on Iranian anchoring in neighboring Syria.

Syria’s state news agency said Midhat Saleh was shot dead on Saturday in Ein el-Tinneh, a village along the Israeli border in the Golan Heights, where he ran a Syrian government office. Israeli media said Saleh had helped the Iranian military against Israel.

The Israeli military declined to comment, but if Saleh was actually killed by Israel, it would mark the first time that Israeli snipers are known to have killed anyone identified as an Iranian-linked target across the border. Israel has said it will not tolerate a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria and has acknowledged the conduct of dozens of airstrikes on alleged Iranian arms shipments and military targets in Syria in recent years.

Israel conquered the Golan Heights from Syria in the war in the Middle East in 1967 and later annexed the strategic area overlooking northern Israel. Most of the world does not recognize the annexation, even though the Trump administration declared the territory to be part of Israel.

Saleh was born in Majdal Shams, on the Israeli-controlled side of the Golan, and was imprisoned several times by Israel, most recently for 12 years until 1997. He later moved to Syria, was elected to parliament in 1998 and served as an adviser to the government on The Golan question.

The small Druse community living in the Israeli-controlled side of the Golan generally has good relations with Israel. But many members still profess loyalty to Syria, in part because they have relatives on the other side of the border.

Samih Ayoub, a resident of the Israeli side of the Golan, told the Israeli army radio station Saleh had “no connection” to Iran or to any militia. “He’s just a quiet man working in an office. “They killed him next to his house,” he said.

Saleh’s brother, Yasser Saleh, a doctor in Damascus, said his brother also lived in the Syrian capital, but visited the border area on a regular basis, slept there and sometimes talked to relatives across the border. He said his younger brother had survived a previous assassination attempt in early 2011 and remained committed to ending Israeli control of the Golan Heights until the end. He said his brother was survived by a wife and two children, including a son named Golan.

Although there was no official comment, said Israeli military commentators — who receive high-level background briefings with top-flight brass brass — Saleh was intimately involved in helping the Iranians build their capabilities along the Israeli front. Iran has sent thousands of forces to Syria to support President Bashar Assad’s army during the country’s decades-long civil war.

“He responded directly to the Iranians,” wrote Yossi Yehoshua, a military correspondent for Yediot Ahronot, Israel’s largest paid daily newspaper.

Giora Eiland, a former Israeli national security adviser, told Army Radio that if Israel killed Saleh, it was meant to send a message to the Iranians and have no connection to the past. “I’m assuming this was not a nightmare,” he said. “We are not talking about a mass murderer.”

Yoel Guzansky, a senior colleague and expert on Iran at the Institute for National Security Studies, a think tank in Tel Aviv, said it was not a sure thing that Israel had been involved at all. He said Saleh was not a particularly valuable target and also had strained ties with Iranian clerk Hezbollah and objected to the group’s activities in the Golan.

But he said that if Israel really killed Saleh through an unprecedented sniper attack, it sent a strong message to Iran and Syria about their activities near the Israeli border.

“It says we have many ways and many techniques,” he said. “We’re keeping an eye on you.”

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AP correspondent Albert Aji in Damascus contributed with reporting.

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