Beirut: The Syrian army said on Tuesday it had shot down an Israeli warplane and a drone in Syria after an Israeli attack on a Syrian army position in southern Syria, state media reported.
The state-run SANA news agency said the warplane had attacked an army position at 1am on Tuesday in the countryside of Syria's southern Quneitra province. It and a drone were then shot down.
The Israeli military categorically denied a claim by the Syrians that they had shot down an Israeli warplane and a drone.
Israeli aircraft attacked targets in Syria on Tuesday, hours after a stray mortar bomb from fighting among factions in Syria struck the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said Syria "didn't shoot anything down". Suggesting that the missile fire had not come close to hitting the Israeli aircraft, he added that they were "in no danger" and that "at no point was the safety of the aircraft compromised".
Israeli Army Radio said the missile fire had been inaccurate and had occurred long after the Israeli attack.
The strike came hours after a nationwide ceasefire in Syria brokered by the United States and Russia went into effect on Monday evening, the second attempt this year by Washington and Moscow to halt the five-year-old civil war.
No casualties from the mortar bomb were reported and the Israeli military said in a statement "aircraft targeted artillery positions of [the] Syrian regime in the central Syrian Golan Heights".
The area is close to where fighting in the Syrian civil war has been taking place. Israel has responded similarly in the past when there has been an overspill of fire into the territory.
The previous retaliation for errant fire took place on Saturday, when Israeli aircraft struck Syrian positions. A military spokeswoman said Tuesday's strike was the fourth retaliation since September 4.
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed it in 1981 in a move that has not won international recognition.
In April, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travelled to area to declare that Israel would retain full control of the mountainous plateau forever and never return the strategic highlands to Syria.
Reuters, New York Times
