...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers..., according to Syrian media.
Syrian air defenses responded to an alleged Israeli
...
KABOOM!...
near the Syria-Lebanon border on Tuesday night, which has left one dead and three maimed, all soldiers, according to a Syrian military source, SANA reported.
The source added that the strike targeted an air defense unit in the area.
The open source intelligence social media account Intelli Times tweeted earlier that the strike targeted a weapons stockpile intended for Hezbollah located along a weapons smuggling route between Syria and Lebanon.
The area around the once popular resort city of Al Zabadani was part of a major supply route for weapons sent by Syria to Hezbollah before the 2011 outbreak of the Syrian conflict, which has killed more than 200,000 people.
The airspace above the Golan Heights east of the Jordan River was closed to flights over 5,000 feet shortly after the airstrikes were reported in Syria until Wednesday afternoon.
This is the second alleged Israeli strike in Syria in the past week.
On Thursday, Syrian media reported that air defense systems responded to another alleged Israeli airstrike in the north-west of the country. Four buildings, part of a munitions factory in Maysaf, where the airstrike took place, were damaged.
| Al Masdar confirms the attack, adding: |
According to a field source in Damascus, the Israeli Air Force launched a number of strikes over the al-Zabadani area and Western Mountains, prompting the Syrian air defense units to confront the hostile missiles falling on the sites.
The source said that an Israeli jet inside Lebanese airspace fired several missiles at the Nabi Habeel area of western Damascus, hitting some of the targeted sites, while the other projectiles were intercepted by the Syrian air defense forces.
He pointed out that at least one Syrian Arab Army (SAA) soldier was killed in the attack, while a couple others were transferred to a local military hospital for treatment; they are expected to recover from their injuries.
The al-Zabadani area is completely under the control of the Syrian Arab Army and National Defense Forces (NDF); Hezbollah previously had a presence in the area, but withdrew following the recapture of the western countryside of Damascus.
This latest attack on western Damascus by the Israeli Air Force will likely be the last of the year, as 2020 witnessed a large number of strikes carried out by Israel over the Syrian Arab Republic.
Israel has not commented on this latest attack.
It is noteworthy to mention that last Israeli attack on Syria took place on Christmas Eve; they targeted the Masyaf countryside in the western part of the Hama Governorate.