Syria slams Israeli incursions after violence in south

DAMASCUS: Syria's foreign ministry on Monday condemned Israeli incursions and bombardment in the country's south a day after violence near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that state media and locals said caused residents to briefly flee. Tensions rose on Sunday in the village of Abidin in the Yarmuk Basin area in the southern province of Daraa after Israeli forces advanced into the area, with angry residents trying to block the road with stones to stop the patrol. State media and a local official said Israeli forces later responded with artillery fire, prompting residents to flee to nearby villages overnight.

Syria's foreign ministry in a statement condemned "the Israeli attacks represented by incursions into Syrian territory in Quneitra and Daraa provinces and the targeting of the region with artillery shelling", slamming "a blatant violation of Syrian sovereignty and territorial integrity". Israel sent troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone that for decades separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan, occupying what it now calls a "security zone" in southern Syria. It has also carried out repeated incursions deeper into Syrian territory, as well as bombings and says it wants a demilitarised zone in the country's south. — AFP