BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels have captured one village and parts of others on the edge of the Golan Heights. That word comes from activists and officials.
The rebel gains came as fighting closed in on the strategic plateau that Israel captured from Syria in 1967.
If rebels take over the region, it will bring radical Islamic militants to a front-line with Israeli troops. And it will give them a potential staging ground for attacks on Israel.
One of the rebel groups involved in the fighting is an Islamic militant group.
There have been fears that the Syrian civil war would draw in neighboring countries such as Israel or Lebanon. Israel has said its policy is not to get involved in the Syrian civil war, though it has retaliated for sporadic fire that has spilled into Israeli communities on the Golan Heights.
