US and Israeli air strikes have separately killed three militants in northern and southern Syria, sources said on Thursday, as the country's foreign ties remain in flux after Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) took power in Damascus five weeks ago.
International powers have been scrambling to formulate new policies on Syria since HTS chief Ahmad Al Shara became the country's de facto leader, replacing the ousted former president Bashar Al Assad. He has avoided confrontation with Israel and has concentrated on internal affairs and securing outside support for the country's recovery, even meeting several times with US officials.
Mr Al Shara will meet in Damascus on Wednesday with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman. A Qatari government spokesman said that Qatar's position is "firm" on "supporting our brothers in Syria".
On Wednesday, an Israeli air attack killed two members of HTS when their patrol came close to Israeli forces in the occupied Golan Heights area west of Damascus, a Syrian military source and pro-HTS media said. An administrator of Ghadeer Al Bustan, a village in the area, was also killed in the strike.
Avichy Adraee, Arabic spokesman for the Israeli military, said the air force fired on Wednesday on vehicles carrying weapons and ammunition, forcing them to retreat after they had approached the buffer zone. He did not refer specifically to the incident at Ghadeer Al Bustan. The army "will continue to work in the area [to] protect the state of Israel", he said.
HTS has not commented on the strike. Israel has unilaterally expanded a UN-monitored buffer zone in the area last month. It has been combing the area for weapons depots left by the now-defunct Syrian military and its former pro-Iranian militia allies.
In the northern governorate of Idlib, an air strike by a US-led coalition killed at least one militant in the area, residents said. His identity was unclear, with residents saying he belonged to the group Jund Al Aqsa, or to Hurras Al Din. These groups are regarded as more extreme than HTS, which had consolidated power in the area over the last decade while allowing some former rivals to keep operating.
Relations with extremists and foreign fighters in particular has emerged as an obstacle in talks between Mr Shara and western countries. Two senior US diplomats met Mr Al Shara in Damascus last week. They relayed US concerns about his inclusion of foreign fighters in the nation's new security force. A source briefed on the meeting told The National that Mr Al Shara said their integration was necessary to preserve stability.
Although Israeli officials had urged caution, Arab countries that had ended hostilities with Mr Al Assad are now dealing with the new rulers in Damascus, as well as the European countries that had started to engage with him in recent years.
At an international meeting in Riyadh on Sunday, Saudi Arabia called for the lifting of all sanctions on Syria, including those imposed on both the former regime and HTS. The US, however, has only granted the new government in Damascus relief from some sanctions that could accelerate delivery of humanitarian aid and basic infrastructure projects.
