Syrian Rebels Advance On Areas Near Israeli-Controlled Golan Heights

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

BEIRUT — Syrian rebels captured one village and parts of others on the edge of the Golan Heights Thursday as fighting closed in on the strategic plateau that Israel captured from Syria in 1967 and later annexed, activists and officials said.

The battles near the town of Quneitra in southwest Syria sent many residents fleeing, including dozens who crossed into neighboring Lebanon. The fighting in the sensitive area began Wednesday near the cease-fire line between Syrian and Israeli troops.

One of the worst-case scenarios for Syria's 2-year-old civil war is that it could draw in neighboring countries such as Israel or Lebanon.

There have already been clashes with Turkey, Syria's neighbor to the north. And Israel recently bombed targets inside Syria said to include a weapons convoy headed for Hezbollah in Lebanon, a key ally of the regime in Damascus and an arch foe of the Jewish state.

If the rebels take over the Quneitra region, it will bring radical Islamic militants to a front-line with Israeli troops. Syrian rebels are made of dozens of groups including the powerful, al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra, which the Obama administration labels a terrorist organization.

Read more: http://www.greenfieldreporter.com/view/story/53b20c85457d4c03b962209293566c82/ML--Syria

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This is going to get interest, indeed...

[pampango]

1. "If the rebels take over the Quneitra region, it will bring radical Islamic militants to a

front-line with Israeli troops."

It will be interesting to see if the rebels (I wonder if Jabhat al-Nusra is part of the fighting near the Golan) avoid confrontation with Israel in the short run or use their 'front-line' contact with Israeli troops to engage in conflict with them.

[mitchtv]

2. interesting indeed

you'd think they'd want to limit their fronts .

[David__77]

3. al-Qaida will encircle Israel before striking.

Seizing Syria would be its crowning victory to date. It is like the Khmer Rouge. There were other anti-Lon Nol fighters in Cambodia, but none with the ideological cohesion of the Khmer Rouge. And so it is with al-Qaida in Syria (Nusra) - the others pale in comparison because they lack unity and vision.