Israel carried out airstrikes in Syria after midnight on Wednesday attacking targets near Damascus and injuring four soldiers, Syrian state media reported, in the latest series of attacks attributed to the Jewish state.
The state-run SANA news agency said the Syrian air defense had attacked Israeli missiles near the capital Damascus, without providing details on the targets.
SANA said the missiles were fired from the Golan Heights and Lebanese airspace, injuring four soldiers and causing “some material losses.”
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“Our air defenses intercepted the attack and shot down most of the missiles,” SANA quoted a military source as saying. Defense analysts routinely dismiss such claims made by the Syrian regime as idle boasters.
Al-Manar TV of the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon said one of the Syrian air defense missiles exploded near the Lebanon-Syria border and was heard in parts of southern Lebanon. It later said the missile crashed near the Lebanese border village of Houla.
The Israel Defense Forces did not comment on the nightly strikes, in line with its policy of neither confirming nor denying its operations in Syria, with the exception of those launched in retaliation for an attack by Israel’s northern neighbor.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the airstrikes targeted “military positions” near Damascus.
They later added that the strikes hit several positions near the city and “destroyed an arms depot belonging to the Iranians.”
This was the first Israeli attack in nearly a month since an alleged attack on reported weapons depots near Damascus airport.
In February, Israeli attacks also reportedly targeted the area of Damascus International Airport, where Iran reportedly flew advanced munitions, as well as military sites around the Damascus suburb of el-Kisweh, an ancient base of Iranian operations.
The attacks came days after drones allegedly bombed a shipment of advanced weapons transported by Iranian accomplices through Iraq to eastern Syria.
The IDF has launched hundreds of attacks in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011 against Iran’s attempts to establish a permanent military presence in the country and against attempts to transport advanced, breakthrough weapons to terrorist groups in the region, mainly Hezbollah. .
Tensions in the Middle East have been high in recent months as Iran and the US take a position ahead of nuclear negotiations.
