President Vladimir Putin told Israel's visiting prime minister on Thursday that the Russian military helped locate the remains of an Israeli soldier missing since 1982 with Syrian assistance, while Damascus denied any knowledge of the matter. The Israeli spokesman who announced it on Wednesday only said that "an opportunity arose to locate the body" through an unnamed country. Baumel went missing in a 1982 battle with Syrian forces in southern Lebanon along with five other Israeli soldiers. Speaking on a visit to Moscow Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Russia for its assistance in finding the remains, and Putin acknowledged that Russia had worked to retrieve them. "Our military together with Syrian partners established the place of his burial," Putin said at the start of the meeting.

Source: ABC News April 04, 2019 07:52 UTC