Israel army says killed Hezbollah figure in Syria strike

The Israeli army on Wednesday said its forces killed a Hezbollah figure inside Syria, as the military continues to target the group’s positions and fighters with a continuous air campaign.

Israel’s air force “struck and eliminated Adham Jahout, a terrorist in Hezbollah’s ‘Golan Terrorist Network’, Hezbollah’s terror cell in Syria,” the army said in a statement.

It described Jahout as an intermediary who “relayed information from Syrian regime sources to the Hezbollah”.

The army said the air raid struck in the area of Quneitra in southwestern Syria near the Israel-annexed Golan Heights.

Israeli authorities rarely comment on individual strikes in Syria, but have repeatedly said they will not allow arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence.

The announcement of the air raid comes hours after Israel’s military chief Herzi Halevi vowed on to keep pummelling Hezbollah, saying strikes would continue “without respite” to prevent the group from recovering.

Hezbollah has historically relied on Syria, with which it is allied, to transport arms and other equipment from its main backer Iran.

Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah have also been among the Syrian government’s most important allies in the country’s more than decade-old civil war.