Large explosions heard near Damascus, state media says air defense systems activated against ‘attacks’
Syrian state media claimed Saturday that the country’s air defenses intercepted projectiles coming from Israel for the second time in two days.
The official SANA news agency said the air defense intercepted “hostile targets coming from direction of occupied territories.”
“Israeli aeroplanes fired at least three missiles from the occupied Golan,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Two of the strikes targeted a Syrian army brigade which supervises the country’s Quneitra province, he said, while the third missile was destroyed by Syrian defenses.
Sana quoted a military source as saying that Syrian “aerial defenses detected hostile targets” fired from the direction of Quneitra province, near the Golan Heights, parts of which are annexed by Israel.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the reports, though the country has previously carried out airstrikes on suspected military sites in al-Kiswah.
Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes in Syria over the years, warning of an ongoing effort by Iran to capitalize on its intervention in the Syrian civil war to establish a permanent military presence in the country.