By Kaamil Ahmed
JERUSALEM (AA): Israeli jets struck sites near the Syrian capital Damascus early Wednesday, local media reported.
The Israeli military refused to comment but the Syrian state-run Syrian Arab News Agency quoted an unidentified Syrian military source as saying two missiles, fired by Israeli jets from Lebanese airspace, hit the Damascus countryside.
Syria’s official news agency SANA cite an unnamed military source as saying that the missiles fell on the Saboura area west of Damascus.
Al-Masdar News, a pan-Arab news and commentary website based in Boston, also said the warplane had fired long-range ‘Popeye’ missiles at the Saboura district,
The air-to-surface missiles have been developed by the Israeli military itself.
London-based Arabic newspaper Rai al-Youm reported that the strikes targeted a Syrian regime military position and an arms convoy belonging to the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, which is fighting alongside regime troops.
In December 2015, Israeli warplanes are thought to have carried out an airstrike in Damascus that killed Hezbollah commander Samir Kuntar, who in 2008 was released after almost 30 years in an Israeli prison. Israel never officially confirmed the strike.
On Sunday, Israeli forces in the occupied Golan Heights clashed with militants they said were linked to Daesh and on Monday bombed an abandoned UN compound Israel said the group had been using as a base.
Since the outbreak of Syria’s civil war in 2011, the Israeli army has occasionally struck targets inside Syria, especially after shells fired from Syrian territory have fallen inside the Golan Heights, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
Additional reporting by The Muslim News
[Photo: Two Israeli Air Force F-15I Ra’am aircraft practice maneuvers mission over Nevada Test and Training Ranges, at Nellis Airforce Base, Nevada, US. Photographer: KEVIN J. GRUENWALD, USAF/Public Domain]
