Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Syria accuses Israel of carrying out airstrikes on capital, wounding two soldiers

Syria accuses Israel of carrying out airstrikes on capital, wounding two soldiers



Israeli fighter jets carried out strikes against targets in the Syrian capital Damascus shortly after midnight on Wednesday, wounding two soldiers, Syria’s state-run media reported.

Syria’s state news agency, SANA, said Israeli Air Force warplanes launched their missiles from over the Golan Heights, targeting a number of sites in and around Damascus.

SANA, citing a military source, said Syrian air defenses responded to the Israeli incursion, downing “most” of the missiles. Syria regularly claims to intercept Israeli missiles, though military analysts doubt such assertions.

The state-run media outlet said that “material damage” was caused to the sites that were targeted, and two soldiers were wounded.

Images circulating online showed flames and smoke rising from several sites in the capital.

There was no immediate comment from Israeli authorities.

The conditions of the two soldiers were not immediately clear. In recent years, numerous Syrian soldiers serving in air defense units have been killed in Israeli airstrikes.

While Israel’s military does not, as a rule, comment on specific strikes in Syria, it has admitted to conducting hundreds of sorties against Iran-backed groups attempting to gain a foothold in the country, over the last decade.

The Israeli military says it also attacks arms shipments believed to be bound for those groups, chief among them Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Additionally, airstrikes attributed to Israel have repeatedly targeted Syrian air defense systems.


No comments: