Israeli missiles target sites near Damascus, Syria says

Bierut- Syrian army air defenses on Sunday confronted an Israeli missile strike on the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus, and there were no casualties, state media said.

Citing a Syrian military source, state media said missile strikes coming from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights had targeted several sites it did not identify.

“Our air defences confronted the aggressors’ missiles and downed some of them with only material losses,” the Syrian military source said.

Reuters could not immediately confirm the report. The Israeli military declined comment.

Israel has for years carried out attacks on what it has described as Iran-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran’s influence has grown since it began supporting President Bashar al-Assad in a civil war that started in 2011.

“There is a clear policy of preventing Iran from entrenching in Syria, from building an infrastructure that threatens Israel, a terrorist infrastructure that seeks to turn the quiet Golan Heights border into a war-fighting border,” Israeli security cabinet minister Israel Katz told the country’s Army Radio.

The airstrikes were the first in Syria attributed to Israel since the targeting on May 2 of Aleppo International Airport. SANA at the time reported that the strikes caused heavy damage and shut down the airport.

The airstrikes according to rights groups targeted Syrian air defense base alongside Hezbollah militants

(Reuters)