© Associated Press/ SANAThis frame grab from a video provided by the Syrian official news agency SANA shows missiles flying into the sky near Damascus, Syria, 25 December
Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) has published a video in which it says the country's air defence systems intercept missiles launched by Israeli warplanes.
Earlier, the state-run news agency cited a military source as saying that Israeli jets fired several missiles towards the vicinity of Damascus, and that most of the missiles were successfully shot down.
According to the source, the airstrikes nevertheless caused damage to a warehouse at Damascus International Airport, which continued work following the strike.
The airstrike came after Israeli Air Force planes staged a similar attack on Syria on 25 December, when at least three Syrian Army soldiers were wounded and an ammunition depot near Damascus destroyed.
At the time, Syrian air defence systems also managed to intercept most of the missiles which SANA reported were launched by Israeli warplanes from Lebanese air space.
Commenting on the 25 December strike, the Syrian Foreign Ministry, in turn, accused Israel of exacerbating the ongoing war in Syria and hampering the government's efforts to fight terrorism.
In a message to the UN Secretary-General, the Foreign Ministry said, in particular, that the Israeli airstrike would not have taken place if it was not for what it described as "unlimited" US support for Israel.
From PressTV:
Syrian air defenses have managed to destroy most of the missiles fired by Israeli warplanes toward the capital Damascus, Syrian state media say.SouthFront:
"The results of the aggression so far were limited to a strike on one of the warehouses at Damascus airport," the Arab country's SANA news agency reported, quoting an unnamed military source as saying.
The source further said that the aggression occurred at 11:15 p.m. local time on Friday, adding, "Eight enemy targets spotted in the skies of Damascus exploded."
According to the military source, the Syrian air defenses were "immediately" engaged overnight after a number of Israeli fighter jets came "from the direction of the Galilee (and) fired several missiles towards the vicinity of Damascus."
SANA further quoted an unnamed Ministry of Transport official as saying that the Damascus International Airport traffic was normal and that it was not affected by the Israeli aggression.
The Israeli regime launches airstrikes on the Syrian territory from time to time, aggressive moves usually viewed as attempts to prop up terrorist groups that have been suffering defeats at the hands of Syrian government forces.
In October, Moscow equipped Damascus with the advanced S-300 surface-to-air missiles, days after Israeli fighter jets attacked Syrian targets using a Russian surveillance plane flying nearby as a shield and hence misleading the Syrian air defenses to shoot it down.
Since then Israel has been very careful with its operation over Syria.
It is not yet clear whether the S-300s were among the air defense systems used in the Friday night counterattacks.
Israeli warplanes carried out an airstrike on a depot in the Damascus international airport at the late hours of January 11, a military source told the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)."At 23:15, Israeli warplanes, coming from the direction of Galilee [in northern Israel], launched several missiles at the outskirt of the Damascus international airport. Our air defenses immediately responded to the hostile missiles and shot down most of them," the source said.The SANA said that the Syrian Arab Air Defense Forces (SyAADF) have intercepted at least eight Israeli missiles over the Syrian capital of Damascus. Several videos released by pro-government activists and locals confirmed this.
Following the airstrike, Israeli warplanes were seen flying at high speed and low altitude over the southern Lebanese city of Tyre. Experts believe that the warplanes were on their way back to Israei airspace after completing their mission.
If confirmed, this will be the second Israeli attack on Syria within few weeks. On December 25, Israeli warplanes targeted several military positions around the Syrian capital. While Israeli sources claimed that the positions were being used by Iranian forces, the airstrikes injured several Syrian service members.
So long as Syria limits the responses to simply defending against the incoming missiles ONLY (instead of actually targeting the aircraft from which they are launched (and/or perhaps the airfields from which the aircraft are launched)), continued aggression by Israel will never be deterred.
Besides, defending only against the incoming missiles can only be a losing proposition, as Israel's weaponry will always be replenished as needed by a complicit US and, no matter how good the defenses may be, SOME missiles will always get through and kill Syrian people and/or destroy/damage Syrian assets.