In an apparent reprisal attack, missiles fired from Syria at the Israeli Golan Heights on Monday morning crashed before crossing the border, the IDF said.
"The shooting was carried out by operatives from Shiite militias controlled by the Iranian Quds Force from the outskirts of Damascus," the army said.
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Following the attack, head of the IDF Spokesperson's Unit's Arabic division, Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, warned Syrian President Bashar Assad that he would "pay a heavy price for allowing Iran to operate in your territory... Nothing is hidden from us. Consider yourselves warned."
Early Monday morning, at least 18 Iranian military personnel and members of Shiite militias were killed in airstrikes in northeast Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog group.
Arab media outlets reported that unidentified warplanes carried out the attacks in areas under the control of Iran-backed Shiite militias.
The strikes apparently targeted the Popular Mobilizations Unit, an Iraqi Shiite militia backed by Iran, the Britain-based Observatory said.
"Warplanes whose identity is not known so far targeted vehicles and positions of the Iranian forces and militias loyal to them," it added.
Several casualties were reported, along with heavy damage to a logistical facility and weapons warehouse. According to other reports, four warplanes attacked the targets in three separate waves.
Meanwhile, Lebanon's Al-Manar television, which is affiliated with Hezbollah, reported early Monday that the terrorist organization had downed an Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle flying over southern Lebanon near the Israeli border. Hezbollah said its people were in possession of debris from the UAV.
The IDF confirmed that one of its drones "fell inside southern Lebanon during routine operations."
In a statement, it did not say what caused the crash and noted "there is no concern information could be taken from it."
Hezbollah and the IDF exchanged cross-border fire a week ago after a drone attack attributed to Israel in Hezbollah-controlled south Beirut.
In response, Hezbollah fired missiles at IDF vehicles and an IDF outpost near Avivim on the northern border last Sunday, and the IDF responded by shelling Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
In late August, Israeli aircraft struck Iranian forces near Damascus that had been planning to launch "killer drones" at targets in Israel.
"The strike targeted Iranian Quds Force operatives and Shiite militias that had been preparing advance attacks targeting sites in Israel from within Syria," the IDF said at the time.
On August, 21, Western diplomats said Israel had recently carried out three strikes on Iranian missile stores in Iraq.
According to the Western sources, the strikes were carried out as part of "understandings" reached between the United States and Russia that Israel's security must be a priority. According to the diplomatic sources, the US and Russia have agreed that Israel must be allowed to track Iranian activity in Syria and Iraq and attack targets identified with Iran that could pose a security threat to Israel through long-range precision missiles and other weapons.
