An alleged Israeli airstrike in Syria Tuesday night hit several senior Hezbollah officials as they boarded a plane bound for Iran, Newsweek reported Wednesday morning, citing a Defense Department source.
The unnamed source told the magazine he had received the information from top Israeli military brass.
He said strategic Iranian munitions were also targeted, including advanced GPS components for weaponry.
Syrian state media said the strikes, beginning at about 10 p.m., were carried out from Lebanon and that a number of targets were intercepted. It said its own air defenses had opened fire on “enemy targets,” shooting them down.
Syrian TV quoted a military source saying weapons warehouses were hit, and three Syrian soldiers wounded.
Syrian media said Wednesday morning that Israel hit a base used by Hezbollah in Al-Dimas, a weapons depot at a base belonging to the Syrian army’s 4th division in Sabura and the military’s 10th Division command in Qatana.
Additionally, Syrian air defenses in Attal and the 68th Brigade and 137th Battalion in Khan-al-Sheikh were also reportedly attacked, Hadashot reported.
Syrian eyewitnesses and video on social media showed what appeared to be intense fire on targets near the capital.
Syrian News Agency says the “Aggression on #Syria” continues “from the Lebanese airspace” and air defenses are responding. pic.twitter.com/i6W7XjkNOA— Zaid Benjamin (@zaidbenjamin) December 25, 2018
“It’s an Israeli raid,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.
“Missiles fired from Israeli planes targeted… arms depots southwest and south of Damascus that belong to Hezbollah or Iranian forces,” Abdel Rahman said.
News reports made a connection between the strike and the earlier arrival of an Iranian cargo jet in Damascus. The 747, belonging to Iran’s Fars Air Qeshm, had landed in Syria just after 7 p.m.
The civilian company has been accused on multiple occasions of smuggling Iranian arms to Hezbollah, and media speculated that its cargo had been the target of the strikes.
It was not clear whether the jet was the one which Hezbollah officials had allegedly boarded.
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