Israeli missiles fired at targets in Syria’s Damascus area: Media

DEVELOPING STORY,

State media reports that two soldiers were injured and damaged in Israel’s latest airstrikes on Syria.

Syrian state media reports that Israel carried out airstrikes against targets in the Damascus area with loud explosions heard over the capital at around 01:30 local time (22:00 GMT).

The state news agency SANA said Syrian air defenses “encountered hostile targets” in the early hours of Thursday morning, the Associated Press reported.

State media, citing a military source, said Israel had launched “a number of rockets” from the Golan Heights targeting the Damascus area, wounding two soldiers and causing “some material damage”.

Syrian air defenses had countered the missiles and “shot down some of them,” the source added.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes against targets in government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, including two rocket attacks against Aleppo International Airport this month, the third attack by Israeli forces on the airlift facility in six months.

Israel rarely acknowledges its attacks on sites in Syria, which it claims target bases of Iran-linked armed groups such as Lebanese Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war that erupted in 2011.

The Israeli attack on Aleppo airport last week left the facility out of action for two days. Aleppo International Airport has been a critical conduit for the flow of humanitarian aid to the country since a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck southern Turkey and northwestern Syria on February 6, killing more than 50,000 people, including more than 6,000 in Syria.

In addition to airports, Israeli warplanes have also targeted other critical infrastructure, including Syrian seaports.

Israel says such operations are designed to prevent Iranian weapons from reaching armed groups in Syria backed by Tehran.

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