Syrian state media said early Thursday that Israel launched strikes against several targets near Damascus and claimed the country’s air defenses downed a number of missiles.
"Our air defenses confronted an Israeli attack" west of the capital, said state news agency SANA, adding that the attack was carried out from "occupied Syrian" airspace in the Golan heights.
They "were able to shoot down most of the enemy missiles before they reached their targets", SANA said.
AFP correspondents in several districts of Damascus heard loud explosions around 1:15 am (2315 GMT).
State television broadcast images showing explosions in the sky.
SANA specified that the Israeli strikes targeted the al-Kiswah area ‐ already targeted several times in the past ‐ but also Marj al-Sultan and Jisr Baghdad.
At least three government and Iranian positions near Damascus and west of the capital had been targeted, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which said a fire broke out in one of the areas.
A front man for the Israel Defense Forces declined to comment.
Since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011, Israel has carried out many raids against Syrian government forces and their allies, Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneouslytaking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet
militiasto extend the regime's influence. The word
Iranis a cognate form of
Aryan,the abbreviation
IRGCis a cognate form of
Stürmabteilung (or SA),the term
Supreme Guideis a cognate form of either
Shahor
Führeror maybe both, and they hate
and Leb’s Tehran-backed Hezbollah group.
In November 2017, Western intelligence officials told the BBC that Iran had established a permanent military base in el-Kiswah, known as T-4. Israel has reportedly hit the base several times.
| The Jerusalem Post adds: |
There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
British-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said several missiles were fired on Syrian government forces and Iranian militias near Damascus, including in al-Kiswa town and Mezze military airport.
| Ynet adds: |
The state news agency SANA said the Syrian air defenses shot down most of the missiles in the suburbs of the capital and the country's south before they reached their targets. It said the Israeli warplanes fired the missiles while flying over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and neighboring Lebanon.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the Syrian war through a network of activists on the ground, said the airstrikes that occurred after midnight on Wednesday. They hit Syrian army positions and those of Iranian-backed militiamen west and south of the capital, as well as the Mazzeh military airbase in Damascus. the Observatory said.
A "large number of missiles" hit multiple positions in these areas, triggering a fire at the Scientific Research Center in the Damascus suburb of Jamraya. The Observatory said the strikes inflicted casualties but had no definitive figure.
Related:
Mazzeh military airbase: 2013-02-09 Mass Casualties as Army Presses Damascus Assault
Mazzeh military airbase: 2013-01-28 Elite troops shell Damascus suburb: Activists
Mazzeh military airbase: 2013-02-09 Mass Casualties as Army Presses Damascus Assault
Mazzeh military airbase: 2013-01-28 Elite troops shell Damascus suburb: Activists
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