“Three people were martyred in an Israeli aggression” in areas south of Damascus, reported the state-run SANA media outlet citing an unnamed military source.
By Erin Viner
According to the Syrian Arab News Agency, the “the Israeli enemy” launched surface-to-surface missiles late Friday around 11:00 PM that targets some points in south of Damascus that caused “material losses.” Both SANA and state TV reported that Syrian air defenses intercepted and shot down a number of the rockets in countryside outside the capital.
The Syrian Ministry of Defense statement said the attack emanated from the Golan Heights.
The attack targeted Iranian positions and weapon depots near Damascus, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which identified the fatalities as military officers, adding that “four other members of an air defense crew” were wounded during the strikes.
The SOHR also reported that a fire broke at one of the positions near the Damascus airport where ambulances were seen rushing to the site of the attack.
The latest strike by unknown aircraft follows one on 13 May that reportedly killed five people in the Masyaf area in Hama countryside .
It also comes in the wake of the deadliest raid this year on 27 April, when the Britain-based SOHR said 10 people were killed and serious damage was caused when several missiles hit positions near the Damascus International Airport and several outlaying suburbs where Iran-backed militias are located; while Saudi Arabia’s Al Hadath television news identified the target as a weapons shipment en route to the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group.
The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit declined to either confirm or deny involvement in Friday’s strike.
For the past several years, Israel has acknowledged mounting hundreds of attacks on Iranian-linked targets in Syria where the Islamic Republic’s forces and proxy terror groups including Lebanon’s Hezbollah have become entrenched in deployments aimed at attacking Israel while assisting President Bashar al-Assad battle insurgents in the Syrian Civil War which erupted in 2011.
While the Jewish State rarely confirms such missions, the country’s political and defense leaders have repeatedly stated that Iran’s presence just over the northern frontier will not be tolerated.