Israel military claims capture of Iran spy from Syria ground incursion

Israel’s military has announced its capture of an alleged Syria spy who was operating for Iran, reportedly preventing a planned attack by Iranian “terror networks”.

In a statement on Sunday, the Israeli military named the alleged “Iranian terror network operative” as Ali Soleiman Al-Assi, a Syrian citizen living in the area of the southern village of Saida, near the occupied Golan Heights.

“His activities included gathering intelligence on [Israeli] troops in the border area for future terror activity of the network,” the statement said. It claimed that the capture of the Syrian citizen “prevented a future attack and led to the exposure of the operational methods of Iranian terror networks located near the Golan Heights”.

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The operation to capture him reportedly took place “in recent months”, adding that Al-Assib “was detained and transferred for interrogation in Israel”.

The military’s statement represents the first time in the ongoing war against the Gaza Strip and Lebanon that Israel has announced that its troops had operated in Syrian territory.

It comes after reports a few months ago – particularly by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) – had revealed that Israeli forces had entered through the Syrian border with three cars and an armoured vehicle to abduct a Syrian man and take him to the occupied Golan Heights. The Syrian national had also reportedly worked as a driver who transported milk to the capital, Damascus.

While those reports had not been verified or acknowledged at the time, the Israeli military’s announcement seems to confirm that incident.

READ: Israel busts spy ring acting for Iran, security services say