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

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State media reports that two soldiers were injured and damage sustained in latest air strikes by Israel 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 around 1:30 am local time (10pm 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 that Israel had launched “a number of missiles” from the Golan Heights targeting 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 missiles 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 Assad in the Syrian civil war that erupted in 2011.

Last week’s Israeli airstrike on Aleppo airport put the facility out of operation for two days. Aleppo International Airport has been a major channel for the flow of humanitarian aid into the country since a 7.8-magnitude 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, Israelis warplanes have also targeted other critical infrastructure including Syrian seaports.

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