Israel again fires missiles at Syria site: Observatory
Second alleged Israeli attack inside Syria in a week hits research centre in Jamraya on the outskirts of Damascus.
Israel again fired missiles at a Syrian military facility near Damascus late on Monday, according to a war monitor, the second reported Israeli strike in Syria in the past week.
Syrian forces responded by firing anti-aircraft missiles at Israeli jets, Lebanese news channel Al-Mayadeen reported, adding the Israeli attack targeted a scientific research centre near Jamraya on the outskirts of the Syrian capital.
Syrian air defence systems intercepted three of the missiles, Al-Mayadeen reported.
“The shelling took place with missiles launched by Israeli warplanes,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported citing local sources.
“The explosions were accompanied by flashes … believed to be caused regime’s air defence launching its missiles to intercept the [Israeli] missiles and prevent them from hitting their targets,” the Observatory added.
“The Observatory learned that the targets are warehouses and locations belong to the regime forces and their allies.”
Residents living near the Jamraya Research and Information Center, located 5km northwest of Damascus, reported hearing loud explosions.
There was no comment from Israel, which rarely confirms the strikes it conducts inside Syria.
In a similar strike on Saturday, Israel reportedly attacked another military position near Damascus.
Syrian state television reported that Syria’s “air defence system thwarted the attack” by shooting down two of the Israeli missiles. The assault led to material losses at the site in the countryside around the capital, it said.
Sources told Al Jazeera that the Israeli raid was aimed at government military sites and positions of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement and that the sound of large explosions caused by the raid was heard in Damascus and its surroundings.
The UK-based Observatory further reported power outages in many areas of the Syrian capital.
Al Qoraish, an Arab newspaper published from London, reported that several Iranian soldiers were killed or wounded in the attack. Al Jazeera was unable to verify the report.
Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement are allied with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war.
Israel says Iran is seeking to open a new front against Israel on the Syrian-Israeli border.