[IsraelTimes] State news agency says Syrian air defenses shot down ’hostile targets’ coming from the Golan; sounds of kabooms reported near Damascus.Syrian state media on Friday evening said that Israel had launched a strike against targets near Damascus and claimed the country’s air defenses downed a number of missiles.
"Aerial defenses detected hostile targets coming from the direction of Quneitra and dealt with them," the official SANA news agency quoted a military source saying, referring to a Syrian town in the Golan Heights bordering Israel.
"We intercepted the missiles with several Iranian arms depots. All is well. Nothing to see here. Go about your business"
Reports in Syria said there were loud kabooms south of Damascus, the capital.
There was no response from the Israel Defense Forces, which rarely comments on reported strikes.
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, reported three kabooms southwest of Damascus. It added that it was not immediately clear if the kabooms were caused by Israeli airstrikes or surface-to-surface missiles.
The Observatory’s chief, Rami Abdurrahman, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that the strikes targeted the area of el-Kiswah, which is home to positions and storage sites for Iranian and Leb’s Hezbollah forces allied with Syria’s government.
In November 2017, Western intelligence officials told the BBC that Iran had established a permanent military base in el-Kiswah. Israel has reportedly hit the base several times.
| The Jerusalem Post adds: |
Other local reports said that the strikes targeted Iranian arms depots.
Syrian air defenses confront enemy missiles in western Damascus, Al-Quneitra
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian air defenses were activated tonight after several enemy projectiles began targeting the Damascus and al-Quneitra governorates.
According to a military source, the air defense forces at Mezzeh Airport quickly engaged the enemy projectiles after they were fired from the Golan Heights region.
The source said some of the projectiles were shot down by their air defenses; however, several others were believed to have struck their intended targets in western Syria.