Syria reports Israeli air attack on targets in Damascus area

Israeli air strikes have hit targets in the vicinity of the Syrian capital Damascus, marking the third such attack in a week, Syrian state media reported.

The Syrian military said Israeli missiles were fired in the early hours of Thursday morning at sites near Damascus and that air defences had “confronted the missile aggression and downed most of them”. There were no casualties reported.

“At around 00:30 AM (21:30 GMT), the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial aggression from the direction of the occupied Palestinian territories targeting several positions in the vicinity of Damascus,” the Syrian defence ministry said in a statement.

The attack follows similar air strikes on Friday and a rare daytime air attack on Monday which wounded a soldier, according to the Syrian army.

The attack on Friday was the first such reported raid since September 17, when Syria’s defence ministry said missile strikes on Damascus International Airport and nearby military posts south of the capital killed five soldiers.

Israel, which does not comment on such attacks, has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, but rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations.

Israel claims it has targeted bases of Iran-allied fighters in Syrian groups. Tehran has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.