Israel bombs positions near Damascus
Israel: "strikes aim to stop Iran's attempts at creating a permanent military presence in Syria."
Jerusalem24 – Israeli warplanes conducted aggressive raids near the Syrian capital, Damascus, before dawn on Monday.
The Syrian official News Agency “SANA” stated that “the air defenses of the Syrian Arab Army responded at dawn today to an Israeli missile attack on the vicinity of Damascus, and most of the enemy missiles were countered.”
SANA quoted a military source as saying that “at exactly one o’clock and 18 minutes from dawn today, the Israeli enemy carried out an aggression with barrages of missiles from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan and the direction of Galilee, targeting some targets in the vicinity of Damascus.” The source added that “our air defenses confronted the aggression missiles and stopped most of them.” In recent months, Israel has intensified its targeting of military and other sites for Iranian forces and groups loyal to it in several areas in Syria.
On January 13th, Israeli strikes were conducted on military facilities and weapons storage warehouses East of Syria. The strike resulted in the death of at least 57 Syrian soldiers as well as pro-Iran forces, in what is considered the largest loss of life since Israel began military operations against Syria.
According to the SANA, on January 22nd, 4 Syrian citizens 2 of them children, were killed during an Israeli raid that targeted positions around the Syrian city of Hamma. Meanwhile, the Israeli military mentioned in its yearly report a few weeks ago that bombed around 50 targets in Syrian during 2020. No other details were mentioned on the nature of these targets. Israel claims that its strikes aim to stop Iran’s attempts at creating a permanent military presence in Syria.