Syrian media reported that Israel launched raids targeting the vicinity of the capital, Damascus, at dawn on Wednesday, and that the Syrian air defenses intervened to confront them.
A Syrian soldier was seriously wounded at dawn on Wednesday, as a result of an Israeli air strike that targeted points near Damascus, according to the Syrian official media.
Over the past years, Israel launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria, targeting sites of the Syrian army and Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah targets, including weapons and ammunition depots in several areas.
At dawn on Wednesday, an AFP correspondent reported hearing explosions in Damascus.
The official Syrian News Agency (SANA) quoted a military source as saying, “At around 01:05 a.m. today (22:05 GMT), the Israeli enemy carried out an air aggression from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting some points southwest of Damascus.”
The bombing resulted in “a soldier being seriously injured and material losses,” according to the source, who confirmed that the air defenses intercepted the missiles and shot down some of them.
For its part, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the shelling targeted “arms depots belonging to pro-Iran fighters,” and a fire broke out in them.
Israel rarely confirms the implementation of strikes in Syria, but it repeats that it will continue to confront what it describes as Iran’s attempts to consolidate its military presence in Syria.
Syria has been witnessing a bloody conflict since 2011, which has killed about half a million people, caused massive damage to infrastructure, and led to the displacement of millions of people inside and outside the country.
