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

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State media reports that two soldiers were injured and damage sustained in Israel’s latest air attacks on Syria.

Syrian state media reports that Israel has conducted air attacks on targets in the Damascus area with loud explosions heard over the capital city at approximately 1:30am local time (22:00 GMT).

The SANA state news agency said Syrian air defences were “confronting 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 missiles” from the Golan Heights aimed at the vicinity of Damascus that had left two soldiers wounded and caused “some material damage”.

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

Israel has carried out hundreds of air attacks against targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, including two missile strikes this month on Aleppo International Airport, which marked the third attack by Israeli forces on the air transport facility in six months.

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

Last week’s Israeli attack on Aleppo airport put the facility out of operation for two days. Aleppo International Airport has been a crucial channel for the flow of humanitarian aid into 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.

Along with airports, Israeli warplanes have also aimed at other critical infrastructure, including Syrian seaports.

Israel says such operations are aimed at preventing Iranian weapons from reaching armed groups in Syria that are backed by Tehran.