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Syria conflict: 'Israeli jets' strike outside Damascus | Syria conflict: 'Israeli jets' strike outside Damascus |
(about 1 hour later) | |
Syrian state media say Israeli jets have fired two missiles from Lebanese airspace which struck outside Damascus. | Syrian state media say Israeli jets have fired two missiles from Lebanese airspace which struck outside Damascus. |
A military source told the Sana news agency that the missiles landed in the Sabboura area but caused no casualties. | A military source told the Sana news agency that the missiles landed in the Sabboura area but caused no casualties. |
The source did not say if anything was hit, but the highway from Lebanon to Damascus runs through the town. | |
The Israeli military has not commented. It is believed to have bombed weapons shipments intended for Lebanon's Hezbollah movement in the past. | The Israeli military has not commented. It is believed to have bombed weapons shipments intended for Lebanon's Hezbollah movement in the past. |
Hezbollah, which fought a month-long war with Israel in 2006, has sent thousands of fighters to Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad's forces in the country's civil war. | |
Profile: Lebanon's Hezbollah movement | |
The Syrian military source said Wednesday's missile strikes were "an attempt to distract attention" from the Syrian army's "successes" and a "bid to raise the morale of the collapsing terrorist gangs", an apparent reference to recent rebel losses in Aleppo. | |
The pro-government Al-Masdar News website reported that the Israeli warplanes had fired Popeye missiles at Sabboura, 8km (5 miles) north-west of Damascus | |
"The overnight explosions were so loud they could be heard by an Al-Masdar News field correspondent in downtown Damascus," it added. | |
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, and social media users also reported hearing loud explosions overnight. | |
Al-Masdar said it was likely the strikes targeted a Hezbollah location or a senior member of the Shia Islamist movement. | |
The London-based Arabic news website, Rai al-Youm, meanwhile cited sources as saying that the first target was an arms depot belonging to the 38th Brigade of the Syrian army's 4th Division. | |
The second target was a group of vehicles believed to be part of a Hezbollah weapons convoy, the sources added, stressing that no leaders were targeted. | |
The Israeli military declined to confirm or deny the reports. | |
The reported strikes come days after the Israeli military said its aircraft had targeted and killed four militants linked to so-called Islamic State in the Syrian-controlled Golan Heights, after they opened fire on a patrol on Israeli-occupied territory. |
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