Russian Defense Ministry said it thanked the Israeli army for destroying an islamic State missile launcher that fired two rockets Wednesday that

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The Russian Defense Ministry said it thanked the Israeli army for destroying an Islamic State missile launcher that fired two rockets Wednesday that landed in the Sea of Galilee.

While Israel’s assessment was that the rockets were a case of errant fire in the conflict between Assad regime forces and Islamic State jihadists, Moscow contended that the rockets were fired deliberately by Islamic State at Israel in a bid to draw the Jewish state into the conflict, and have Israel open fire on Syrian regime targets.

According to the Russian ministry, the IDF strike that hit the launcher Wednesday apparently also killed a number of IS fighters.

On Thursday, Israeli police sappers and naval divers were carrying out searches in the sea to find and identify the two projectiles. Beaches on the eastern shore of the lake were closed to bathers.

Eyewitnesses told Hadashot news that they saw the projectiles land in the water — one of them exploding, and the other not.

“We heard a whistling,” one local recalled. “And then a second whistling. And then we saw [one of the missiles] falling into the water, maybe 50 meters from the beach.”

“Russian armed forces’ command in Syria used the existing communication channels to thank the IDF leadership for killing terrorists and stopping a massive provocation,” the Moscow ministry said in a statement Wednesday reported by Sputnik news, which provided an English translation.

“A precision strike by jets and IDF artillery operatively destroyed Daesh terrorists and their rocket launchers,” the ministry said, referring to the terror group by its Arabic acronym.

The ministry said that by firing the missiles IS was “seeking to provoke Israel’s strike on positions of the Syrian government army,” the Tass news agency reported.

Israel has in the past hit Syrian military positions after their stray fire landed in Israeli territory.

Russia, along with Iran, is providing military assistance to Syrian President Bashar Assad is his bid to quash a civil war that has raged for over seven years.

Israeli aircraft targeted a position in southern Syria on Wednesday evening in response to apparently errant fire from the fighting that triggered sirens throughout the Golan Heights hours prior. The Israeli Defense Force said it targeted the rocket launcher that fired the two projectiles toward Israel, though it did not identify the party responsible.


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[link to www.timesofisrael.com]