Israel deploys forces in demilitarised buffer zone

Tel Aviv: The Israeli military said Sunday it also sent troops to “other places necessary for its defence,” and that the force deployment was meant to provide security for residents of the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.

It added it was “not interfering with the internal events in Syria.”

Israel captured that territory from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed it, a move not recognized by much of the international community, which views the territory as occupied.

A later ceasefire agreement created a demilitarised buffer zone between the two countries’ territories, prohibiting military presence or activity from either side in the area. United Nations peacekeepers have patrolled the area since 1974. Head of US-backed Kurdish-led forces hails Assad’s fall.