Isreal Bombs Syrian Military Assets, Advances Past Buffer Zone

The collapse of the Assad regime has prompted a punishing military response from Israel, which has launched airstrikes across Syria and deployed ground troops both into and beyond a demilitarized buffer zone established in 1974.

A Syrian activist group, The Voice of the Capital, said that Israeli forces had advanced as far as Beqaasem, about 25 kilometers (16 miles) from Damascus and several kilometers beyond the Syrian side of the buffer zone.

CNN could not independently confirm that claim, but the village lies in the Syrian foothills of Mount Hermon, which Israeli forces captured on Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said he had ordered the military to seize that demilitarized “area of separation” between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and the rest of Syria.

A spokesperson for the Israeli military denied reports that forces “have advanced on or are approaching Damascus” but said that the military was “positioned within the buffer zone and at defensive points near the border to protect Israeli borders.”

The Israeli defense minister said on Monday that the Israeli military had advanced beyond the buffer zone, but he did not say how deep into Syria the troops had gone.

A CNN team in Damascus heard loud explosions throughout the early hours on Tuesday, a continuation of strikes that began over the weekend.

Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told reporters Monday that Israel was acting to prevent weapons from falling “into the hands of extremists.”

Voice of the Capital said that the overnight bombing campaign was “the most violent in Damascus in 15 years,” saying that Israel had targeted Syrian army centers, Iran-backed militias, strategic weapons depots and armored battalions

CNN/Ejiofor Ezeifeoma