Fire exchanged between Syria and Israel
| JERUSALEM
At least two rockets from聽Syria聽hit the聽Israeli-occupied聽Golan聽Heights聽on Tuesday and聽Israel聽returned fire, the military said, nine days after an Israeli air strike in聽Syria聽killed an Iranian general and several Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.
An Israeli military spokesman said the聽army聽"responded with artillery towards the positions that launched the attack" and that it ordered the evacuation of聽Israel's聽Mt. Hermon聽ski resort on the聽Golan聽Heights聽after the rockets struck.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility or any report of casualties.
"It does not seem that it was errant fire," Lieutenant-Colonel聽Peter Lerner, an聽Israeli army聽spokesman, told Reuters.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman聽Jen Psaki聽told reporters U.S. officials "do not want to see an escalation of the situation." Psaki said the聽United States聽calls "upon all parties to avoid any action that would jeopardize the long-held ceasefire between聽Israel聽and聽Syria."
"We support聽Israel's legitimate right to self defense and have been clear about our concerns over the regional instability caused by the crisis in聽Syria," Psaki added.
Meanwhile, Iran has told the聽United States聽last week's air strike crossed "red lines" and that it will respond, IRNA news agency on Tuesday quoted a senior official as saying.
"We told the Americans that the leaders of the Zionist regime should await the consequences of their act," deputy foreign minister聽Hossein Amir Abdollahian聽said.
"In this message to the Americans we said that the Zionist regime had crossed our red lines," he said.
In the Israeli air strike on a Hezbollah convoy near the聽Golan聽Heights聽on Jan. 18, an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general,聽Mohammed Allahdadi, was killed along with a Hezbollah commander and the son of the group's late military leader, Imad Moughniyeh.
Both Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and fought a 34-day war with聽Israel聽in 2006, and the Revolutionary Guards vowed to avenge the deaths.
Since the air strike, troops and civilians in northern聽Israel聽and the聽Golan聽Heights聽have been on heightened alert and聽Israel聽has deployed an Iron Dome rocket interceptor unit near the Syrian border.
Israel聽captured the聽Golan聽from聽Syria聽in the 1967聽Middle East聽war. Mortar shells and rockets have struck theheights聽numerous times during聽Syria's nearly four-year-old civil war.
Israel聽has said some of those incidents deliberately targeted its soldiers while others were spillover from fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
(Reporting by Maayan Lubell and Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Additional reporting by Will Dunham in Washington; Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by James Dalgleish)
