Three soldiers were injured, reported the state agency Sana. The Syrian air defense had targeted „enemy missiles“ that had been fired from the airspace over Lebanon. According to Syrian representation, all approaching rockets were shot down.
Israel has repeatedly bombed Iranian positions in its neighboring country in recent months. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the attacks were directed against at least three Iranian Revolutionary Guards arsenals and their Lebanese allies by the Hezbollah Shiite militia.
In Damascus, heavy explosions were heard outside the city, said a resident of the German Press Agency. The detonations apparently took place in the area of the military airport Messe in the west and in an area northwest of the capital. At first, there were no official statements about the exact target of the attacks and possible victims or damages. It merely said that a weapons depot had been damaged.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed on Wednesday that Iran’s establishment in Syria would not be tolerated. „We are determined and steady, even these days,“ he wrote on Twitter. „I said that we will not be afraid to do what we need to do.“ Israel resolutely defends „its red lines in Syria and elsewhere“.
Moscow reacted indignantly to the attack on Damascus. „Both the fact that it comes to it and the way we are the most worried,“ said the Russian Foreign Ministry. The action was a „gross violation of the sovereignty of Syria“. In addition, two passenger aircraft near Damascus were exposed to the respective landing approach to the Syrian and Lebanese capital of a massive danger, said the spokesman for the Ministry of Defense. The flights were redirected in time.
Tehran is next to Moscow, the closest ally of the government of the head of state Bashar al-Assad and supports him in the seven years of ongoing internal Syrian war militarily. Together with Iran-funded Hezbollah, it threatens Israel from the north and northeast.
An Israeli army spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said the Israeli air defense had been activated against an air defense missile fired in Syria. There are no injuries or damages. Earlier, residents of the Israeli coastal town of Hadera between Haifa and Tel Aviv had reported loud explosions.
According to Russia, Russia had equipped its Syrian allies in October with the modern air defense system S-300. The background was the shooting down of a Russian reconnaissance plane with 15 soldiers over the Mediterranean after a miss of the Syrian air defense. The Syrians had targeted with the old Russian system S -200 actually four attacking Israeli F-16 jets.
