BEIRUT —Syrian military air defenses thwarted an Israeli attack on Sunday, shooting down several missiles in the south of the country, state media said.
“Our air defense systems thwarted ... an Israeli air aggression ... and prevented it from achieving any of its goals,” a military source told state news agency SANA. It gave no further details.
An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment.
The Israeli military later said its Iron Dome interceptor system shot down a rocket fired at the northern part of the occupied Golan Heights on the Syria frontier.
The military’s statement did not immediately specify where the rocket was launched from. The northern Golan is also close to Lebanese territory.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged an Israeli attack last week on what he called an Iranian arms cache in Syria, where Tehran provides Damascus with vital support.
He told his Cabinet Israel had carried out “hundreds” of attacks over the past years of Syria’s war to curtail Iran and its ally Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Usually silent about its attacks on Iranian targets near its frontier, Israel has lifted the veil this month, a sign of confidence in a campaign waged amid occasional tensions with Syria’s big-power backer Russia.
The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, Rami Abdel Rahman, said the region targeted was south of Damascus near the Kisweh area.
“Warehouses containing weapons for Syrian regime ally Hezbollah and Iranian fighters are located in that area,” Abdel Rahman said.
But the head of the observatory — which is based in Britain and relies on a network of sources inside Syria — said it was not clear if these stores were hit in the strikes.
Israel has pledged to stop its main enemy Iran from entrenching itself militarily in neighboring Syria.
It has carried out hundreds of airstrikes there against what it says are Iranian military targets and advanced arms deliveries to Tehran-backed Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia.
Israel rarely publicly confirms its strikes in Syria. — Agencies
