© realrussiatoday.comIsraeli strike on military airport near Damascus.
According to earlier reports, Israel has launched a number of airstrikes targeting Syria's territory from Lebanese airspace.
Several Israeli ground-to-surface missiles have been intercepted by Syrian forces, while a number of others caused material damage in the area south of Damascus, the Syrian Al-Ikhbariya TV channel reported.
The missiles hit an ammunition depot of the Syrian army at 0:30 local time (22:30 GMT on Friday),
causing explosions in the area between the towns of Kiswah (Kesweh) and Sahnaya, Arab outlet Al-Masdar News earlier reported citing its sources. However, a spokeswoman for the Israel Defense Forces refused to comment on the situation when asked by Sputnik.
Some videos that emerged on social media are claiming to show the moment when the Israeli missiles were intercepted by Syrian Air Defense. [see below]
As for Israeli and Syrian bilateral relations, both of them have
attacked each other on numerous occasions over the disputed Golan Heights, which were partly seized by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967. The latest IDF attack on Syria occurred in September 2017,
when the IDF attacked Syrian Arab Army forces in the province of Hama.
© ogn.news
Comment: Without Daesh as the interface, Israel has to do its own dirty work. How long will Israel's transgressions go unaddressed before they trigger a wider conflict?
According to
The Times of Israel:
Syria's state run news agency and local media outlets attributed the airstrikes on the al-Mazzeh airport to the Israel Defense Forces. The IDF, which doesn't comment on foreign reports of military operations, refused to confirm the reports.
State news agency SANA said Israel had launched the missiles from Israeli-held territory north of the Sea of Galilee.
"At 3:00 a.m., the Israeli enemy fired several surface-to-surface missiles from inside occupied territory," the state news agency SANA said, citing a military source. The report said the Israeli missiles caused a large fire but no injuries or deaths.
The regime source also threatened "repercussions" against Israel over the strikes.
The Syrian military source called the alleged missile attack against the Mazzeh airbase part of "desperate attempts by the Israeli enemy to support terrorist groups and raise their low morale."
There were no immediate reports of injuries from the strikes.
An AFP correspondent heard several explosions and saw a large fire inside military airport, with smoke visible across the capital. Videos posted online purporting to show Friday's attack showed several massive fires, with sirens wailing in the background.
The report of Israeli military action was the first in over a month. The last incident also involved an attack on the Mazzeh airbase. In early December Syrian state media reported that the IDF fired missiles from within "occupied" territory at an important Syrian regime airbase outside Damascus.
Officials in Jerusalem have said they take action to stop the transfer of advanced weapons to terror groups; over a dozen strikes inside Syria have been attributed to Israel.
The presence of Russian anti-aircraft batteries in Syria have reportedly complicated Israeli action in the war-torn country over the last year, with reports of missiles launched at targets inside Syria from Israeli or Lebanese territory.
Comment: Without Daesh as the interface, Israel has to do its own dirty work. How long will Israel's transgressions go unaddressed before they trigger a wider conflict?
According to The Times of Israel: