Syria civilians killed in Israeli missile attack: State media

Israeli warplanes flying over Lebanon have fired missiles towards Damascus, the Syrian military said, claiming the country’s air defences shot most of them down.

At least three civilians were killed and four others injured after the missiles hit residential areas in al-Hujaira and al-Adliya towns near the Syrian capital, the state-run SANA news agency said on Monday.

Describing the attack as an “Israeli aggression” carried out from Lebanese airspace, SANA said the military “shot down a number of missiles before they reached their targets”.

Israel rarely confirms attacks, and it did not comment on the latest missiles attack, which came a week after the ancient city of Palmyra was targeted.

Israel has said, however, that it was behind a series of air raids mainly targeting Iranian forces and fighters from Lebanese armed group Hezbollah in Syria fighting alongside Syrian government forces.

Since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of attacks in the country. It has also in the past used Lebanon’s airspace to launch attacks on Syria.

On April 20, SANA said Syrian air defences had downed Israeli missiles near the ancient city of Palmyra.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the targets were “military posts for Iranian militias in the Palmyra desert”.

That raid killed three Syrian fighters and six foreigners, according to the Observatory, which was not able to determine their nationalities.