The Israeli Air Force on Sunday struck and killed four terrorists affiliated with the Islamic State group, after they fired mortars and shot at Israel Defense Forces Golani Brigade troops patrolling the border, the IDF said. The terrorists, members of the Islamic State-linked Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade, fired at the Israeli soldiers, who were on Israeli-controlled territory, from a vehicle driving along the Syrian side of the Golan, said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner of the IDF Spokesperson's Unit. The Golani reconnaissance unit fired back before the Israeli aircraft struck. "The air force intervened, targeted the vehicle the gunmen were in and hit and struck the vehicle, killing what seems [to have been] four terrorists," Lerner said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the incident at a cabinet meeting in Haifa Sunday: "We will not let Islamic State operatives, or other operatives under the auspices of the Syrian war, establish themselves along our borders." Israel has often responded to errant fire from the Syrian civil war, but exchanges of fire with gunmen in the Golan have been rare since the fighting began more than five years ago. This was the first time Islamic State-affiliated terrorists have clashed with the IDF in the Golan. IDF spokesperson Moti Almoz noted that residents in northern Israel have already returned to their usual routines. There was no immediate response about the incident from the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade. The United States designated the group a terrorist entity in June for its activities and links to Islamic State. The group first gained attention in March 2013 when they abducted 21 U.N. peacekeepers from the Philippines in a demilitarized zone between Syria and the Israeli-held part of the Golan. The peacekeepers were released three days later.
