Illustrative image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
An officer of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) was killed on June 19 morning in Israeli drone strikes that targeted the southern governorates of Quneitra and Daraa, the Syrian Arab News Agency reported.
The strikes targeted two military sites, a military official told the state-run news agency, adding that there were also material losses.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a London-based pro-opposition monitoring group, said that the Israeli strikes hit two positions near the town of Saidah belonging to the SAA’s 112th Mechanized Brigade. Saidah is in the southern Quneitra right on the administrative border with Daraa and just a kilometer away from the frontline on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The deadly strikes came just two days after an Israeli military drone crashed in al-Quntar. The drone, a Skylark model, was on a reconnaissance mission when it fell out of the sky, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said at the time.
The SOHR linked the drone crash to the Israeli strikes, claiming that the wreckage of the drone was being kept by members of Lebanon’s Hezollah at one of the targeted positions.
The Skylark is a family of drones developed by Israel’s Elbit Systems. The drone that crashed in Quneitra was likely the miniature, hand-launched Skylark I which was designed for tactical surveillance and reconnaissance. This version has a range of 20-40 kilometers.
The drone payload consists of a daylight camera or optional thermal imager for night operations. During operation, it sends real-time video to a portable ground station.
The SOHR’s claims are likely false as several Skylark drones crashed in southern Syria in the past and the IDF never attempted to target any of them. In addition, the monitoring group is well-known for spreading fake news when it comes to Israeli attacks on Syria.
Israel has significantly escalated its attacks on Syria since the outbreak of the war in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza Strip, targeting Syrian military sites as well as personnel of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hezbollah and other forces of the so-called Axis of Resistance.
The war-torn country has been refraining from responding directly to these attacks in an effort to avoid a dangerous confrontation.
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