IDF says several gunmen ‘eliminated’ after firing on troops in southern Syria overnight

The IDF says several gunmen opened fire on Israeli troops operating in the southern Syrian town of Tasil overnight, as they were working to “confiscate weapons and destroy terror infrastructure.”

The military says the troops, of the 474th Golan Regional Brigade, returned fire and “eliminated” several gunmen “on the ground and from the air.”

No soldiers were injured in the exchange, and the operation in the area was completed, the IDF adds.

Tasil is located some 13 kilometers from Israel’s border, outside of a demilitarized buffer zone along the Israel-Syrian border which the Israeli military moved into last December following the fall of the Assad regime.

It marks only the second incident in which IDF troops operating in southern Syria have come under fire since deploying to the buffer zone.

The IDF has described its presence in southern Syria’s buffer zone as a temporary and defensive measure, though Defense Minister Israel Katz has said that troops will remain deployed to nine army posts in the area “indefinitely.”