Israeli fighter jets carried out strikes against targets in the Syrian capital Damascus shortly before midnight on Monday, Syria’s state-run media reported.
Syria’s official SANA news agency said air defenses were engaging “hostile targets” over Damascus, a euphemism for Israeli Air Force incursions. Syria regularly claims to intercept Israeli projectiles, though military analysts doubt such assertions.
Large explosions were heard over the capital during the alleged strikes, SANA reported.
SANA did not immediately provide further details on the purported airstrikes, including whether there were casualties or damage.
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.
The attack would be the first alleged Israeli sortie over Syria since August 7, when fighter jets reportedly carried out strikes against targets in Damascus, killing four Syrian soldiers.
The last several months have seen increased tensions along Israel’s northern border via Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy group allied with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
This is a developing story.
