Israeli army claims to have killed 2 fighters in southern Syria

​​​​​​​By Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) - The Israeli army said Thursday that it attacked two fighters in southwest Syria, with one linked to the Lebanese resistance group, Hezbollah.

“The IAF (Israeli Air Force) struck and eliminated Ahmad Al-Jabr, an operative in Hezbollah’s ‘Golan Network’, Hezbollah’s cell in Syria, in the area of Quneitra,” it said in a statement.

“In an additional strike in the area of Al Rafeed in southern Syria, the IDF (army) struck a fighter who advanced terror activities against the State of Israel and operated with Iranian cooperation and direction,” it said without providing details.

The statement came shortly after Syria's state news agency, SANA, reported that two people were killed in an Israeli attack in the region.

SANA said two people were killed in an Israeli drone strike on a car in the town of Khan Arnabeh on the Damascus-Quneitra highway in southern Syria.

Artillery shelling also targeted al-Rafid town, in the southwestern countryside of Quneitra province, injuring one person, it said.

The attacks came days after at least 14 people were killed and 43 injured in Israeli airstrikes on Sunday targeting sites in the Masyaf area in the Hama countryside in west-central Syria.

Israel has been conducting airstrikes in Syria since 2011 against regime forces, Iranian troops and Hezbollah targets.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul