Israeli military kills 4 ISIS militants in Syria after ambush

Israeli aircraft struck a machine gun-mounted vehicle inside Syria Sunday, killing four militants affiliate with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) inside after they had opened fire on a military patrol on the Israeli side of
the Golan Heights, the Israeli military said.

Israel has been largely unaffected by the Syrian civil war raging next door, suffering only sporadic incidents of spillover fire over the frontier that Israel has generally dismissed as tactical errors of the Assad regime. Israel has responded to these cases lightly, with limited reprisals on Syrian positions in response to the errant fire.
But Sunday’s event, in the southern part of the Golan Heights, appears to be a rare case of an intentional shooting ambush by Islamic militants targeting Israeli troops.
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said the Israeli patrol came under machine gun and mortar fire early Sunday. They returned fire toward Syria before an Israeli aircraft engaged, striking the vehicle in question and killing its passengers. He said all were suspected militants from an IS offshoot that controls the area. No Israeli troops were harmed.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commended the troops for thwarting the attack.
“We are well prepared on our northern border and will not allow Islamic State elements or any other hostile elements to use the war in Syria to establish themselves close to our borders,” he said at his weekly Cabinet meeting.