Israeli leaders said they launched attacks on Syria this week to protect members of the Druze religious group in the country’s south, amid clashes in the area.

Turkish President Erdogan accuses Israel of using the Druze in Syria as an excuse for "banditry" and expansion, calling Israel a "lawless, greedy terrorist state".

The strikes in Syria were a rare attack on forces of the new government, which is led by Islamist former rebels who toppled the dictator Bashar al-Assad in December. Since the fall of the Assad regime, Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes in Syria and deployed forces across a demilitarized buffer zone between the two countries.