Exclusive-Syria believed it had green light from US, Israel to deploy troops to Sweida

By Timour Azhari, Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Maya Gebeily

DAMASCUS/BEIRUT (Reuters) -Syria’s government misread how Israel would respond to its troops deploying to the country’s south this week, encouraged by U.S. messaging that Syria should be governed as a centralized state, eight sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops and on Damascus on Wednesday in an escalation that took the Islamist-led leadership by surprise, the sources said, after…