Syrian anti-aircraft missile lands in Cyprus as Israeli strikes ‘kill civilians’ near Damascus
A missile believed to be from Syrian air defences has crashed in northern Cyprus, amid a night of Israeli airstrikes around Damascus which a monitoring group said killed several civilians.
Six civilians, including three children, were killed when Israeli aircraft and warships attacked Assad regime and Iranian targets inside Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The monitoring group gave no details of the civilian casualties. It also said nine pro-regime fighters were killed in the strikes. Syrian regime media reported four civilians were killed.
The Israeli military declined to comment on the Syrian claims of civilian deaths. “We are not commenting on foreign reports,” a military spokesman said.
Meanwhile, a Syrian missile fired at the Israeli aircraft appears to have crashed into a mountain in northern Cyprus without causing casualties.
Kudret Ozersay, the Turkish Cypriot foreign minister, said: “The first assessment is that a Russian-made missile, part of the air defence system, which was part of the air defence system that took place last night in the face of an airstrike against Syria, completed its range and fell into our country after it missed.”
The missile would have flow more than 100 miles across the eastern Mediterranean before coming down near the village of Vounu.
Images from the scene showed what appeared to be the tail fin of a missile which crashed amid shrubs at the foot of the mountain.
The leader of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus , Mustafa Akinci, said: “This is one of the bad consequences of the war in the region.”
Syrian regime air defences have struggled against Israeli aircraft and last year accidentally shot down a Russian reconaissance plane.
Israel has carried more than 250 airstrikes in Syria in the last three years as part of its effort to stop Iran and its proxies from entrenching inside the country, according to Israel’s government.
The strikes have killed dozens of Syrian regime fighters along with Iranian troops and Hizbollah operatives but reports of civilian casualties are rare.
An Israeli official said the military was looking into the Syrian Observatory report of civilian casualties but was sceptical about the claim.
The Syrian Observatory said Israeli aircraft struck at least ten targets around Damascus, using warplanes and missiles fired from naval ships.
One of the targets was reportedly a research centre in the town of Jamraya, just north of the capital.
The centre is part of Scientific Studies and Research Centre (SSRC), a Syrian government agency which helped develop the regime’s chemical weapons stockpile.
Israel has struck SSRC facilities in the past and the US, France, and Britain targeted the SSRC in April 2018 in response to the Syrian regime’s alleged use of chemical weapons in the Damascus suburb of Douma.
Source: Syrian anti-aircraft missile lands in Cyprus as Israeli strikes ‘kill civilians’ near Damascus