Israel has begun a bombing campaign in Syria, carrying out multiple air strikes in the country under the guise of targeting Hezbollah.

According to Arab news outlets, Israeli aircraft used Lebanese airspace in order to hit a weapons cache and a convoy of military vehicles belonging to Hezbollah and the Syrian army.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has neither confirmed nor denied the attacks in line with the position Israel always takes when it comes to sensitive operations.

The aerial assault is believed to have taken place during the night of 29-30 November. According to the London-based Rai al-Youm newspaper, the Israeli warplanes hit the convoy on the Damascus-Beirut highway.

Both the weapons facility and the convoy were under the command of the Shia militant group Hezbollah, which has long been fighting on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. At least four huge explosions were reported near the Syrian capital during the strikes. There is still no word on any casualties.

In the past, several air strikes in Syria and at multiple locations bordering Israel were alleged to have been carried out by Israeli forces though the Israeli government hardly confirms any of these.

The current attack comes close on the heels of the IDF confirming it targeted an Islamic State (Isis)-held position near the Syrian border. The IDF said on 28 November, that the air strike was a response to the attack on Israeli soldiers in the region. Israeli forces “will not hesitate to act against terror groups that operate against the State of Israel”, the IDF warned in a statement. </s> JERUSALEM () — Israel’s Air Force reportedly attacked a Syrian army position and a Hezbollah weapons convoy, according to reports originating in Arab media.

The reported attacks took place early Wednesday morning along the highway connecting Damascus and Beirut, and required the military airplanes to fly in Lebanese airspace.

SANA, the official news agency of the regime of President Bashar Assad, reported Wednesday in an article headlined “Israeli enemy’s air force fires two rockets on Damascus western countryside,” that there were no casualties in the attack, which it called “an attempt to divert attention from the successes achieved by the Syrian Arab army.”

The article did not mention the alleged attack on the Hezbollah weapons convoy.

The article cited an unnamed source as saying that the attacks are “a ‘desperate attempt’ by the Israeli occupation entity to raise the deteriorating morals of the Takfiri terrorist gangs after the heavy losses they have suffered in many areas, especially in the western countryside of Damascus.”

The Israel Defense Forces, as is its standard practice, has neither confirmed nor denied the reports, saying that it does not respond to foreign media reports.

The alleged attack comes three days after the Israeli Air Force struck an Islamic State-affiliated group in Syria, killing four of its members, hours after the group fired on Israeli soldiers across the border in the Golan Heights.

It was reportedly the first clash between Israel and the Islamic State. Most mortars and gunfire on Israel from Syria have been accidental spillover from the internal fighting. The IDF has responded to those with return fire.

The tension between Syria and Israel comes amid renewed fighting in the area between rebel forces and the army of Syrian President Bashar Assad in a more than five-year civil war. </s> The Israeli military has confirmed it attacked Iranian military targets in Syria, hours after carrying out a rare daylight air raid near the Damascus International Airport.

The statement was issued hours after Israeli missile defences intercepted an incoming missile over the Golan Heights in the wake of the airport raid.

“We have started striking Iranian Quds targets in Syrian territory,” the military statement said. “We warn the Syrian Armed Forces against attempting to harm Israeli forces or territory.”

Until now Israel has largely refrained from public admissions of its covert military operations in neighbouring Syria, in order to avoid large-scale involvement in the eight-year civil war. Eleven people were said to have been killed (SANA/AP)

The Syrian military said Israel carried out intensive airstrikes with successive waves of guided missiles shortly after 1am local time (11pm GMT), but added that Syrian air defences destroyed most of the missiles before they reached their targets.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday’s strikes lasted for nearly an hour and were the most intense Israeli attacks since May. It said 11 people were killed in the strikes.

The Russian military said four Syrian troops were among those killed.

On Sunday, Syrian state media said air defences repelled an Israeli air raid near the international airport south of Damascus.

State TV said Syria’s air defences “prevented” the attack from achieving its goals. It said Israel targeted six missiles on an area near Damascus International Airport, of which five were shot down and one diverted to nearby empty farmland.

Residents of the capital said they heard five explosions early on Sunday afternoon, apparently the sound of air defences firing into the air. The Israeli military said the missile strike which prompted the response was ‘pre-meditated’ (SANA/AP)

The Israeli military had initially declined to comment on the airstrike, though it said a rocket fired at the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights was intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defence system.

Israeli warplanes have used Lebanon’s airspace recently to strike deep inside Syria, including attacking a warehouse near Damascus International Airport earlier this month, according to Syrian state media.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently confirmed that Israel has struck hundreds of targets in Syria linked to Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group, including a weapons facility two weeks ago.

Iran and Hezbollah are allied with the Syrian government in the civil war.

Two hours after the reports that Israel’s Iron Dome intercepted a rocket fired toward the Golan Heights, Mr Netanyahu, who currently is on a visit to Chad, said in a statement: “We have a defined policy: to harm Iranian entrenchment in Syria and to harm anyone who tries to harm us.”

Earlier on Sunday, a roadside bomb went off in the south of Damascus without causing casualties, state media reported.

The SANA news agency said the blast targeted a military checkpoint on a main road during rush hour.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which closely monitors Syria’s war, said the bomb targeted the vehicle of a “security personality” that it did not identify.

The Observatory’s chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said it was unclear whether the individual was killed or wounded. “It was not a random act,” he added.

Attacks have been rare in Damascus since Syrian government forces captured the last rebel-held neighbourhoods and suburbs of the capital last year.

Bombings have left hundreds dead over the course of the nearly eight-year civil war. </s> BEIRUT, LEBANON (5:35 A.M.) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Russian President Vladimir Putin that his air force will continue to conduct airstrikes in Syria.

“If there is feasibility from an intelligence and military standpoint – we attack and so it will continue,” the Israeli Premier stated during his official state visit to China this week.

Netanyahu added that he informed President Putin of Israel’s intentions to continue their air operations inside Syria, regardless of Russia’s disapproval.

This statement by Netanyahu comes just five days after the Israeli Air Force attacked the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in the Palmyra countryside, claiming they were targeting Hezbollah. </s> Israeli fighter jets fired missiles on a government-held town west of Damascus according to Syrian state media.



Some reports indicate that four missiles had hit Hezbollah militia targets near Al-Saboorah, a government-controlled suburb of Syria’s capital. No casualties were reported, though there have been conflicting reports over the initial target of the raid.

According to SANA news agency, a Syrian military source said, “Israeli planes launched the airstrike from Lebanese airspace at dawn to “divert attention away from the successes of the Syrian Arab Army”

Al-Masdar news agency reported earlier that the Israeli Air Force had launched four air-to-surface Popeye missiles targeting Hezbollah positions. The jets themselves are not believed to have entered Syrian airspace.

There have been conflicting reports over the initial target of the raid with speculations swirling over what targets were actually hit during the sorties.

Lebanomn’s Mulhak News reported citing own sources that Syria’s army ammunition depot was destroyed in one of the raids, while in the other a number of cars left near to the Damascus-Beirut Highway were damaged. The outlet stated that no senior security or political commanders have been killed in the attack.

Al-Masdar News also cited unconfirmed reports indicating that one of the missiles struck a car repair shop which was used by Hezbollah. No casualties have resulted from the sortie as mechanics were not at the workplace at night hours, it reported.

Other reports indicate that Israeli forces targeted a Hezbollah arms convoy near Damascus.

However, Damascus Now, a popular FB page dedicated to local Syrian news, said the strike targeted army positions.

“At approximately 1:20 a.m. four explosions were heard in the vicinity of Damascus, which sources said were the result of an [Israeli airstrike] against a Syrian army position near the Beirut highway,” NOW’s English news cited Damascus Now as saying on its FB page.

While the circumstances of the attack are still unclear, locals have reported hearing multiple loud explosions after midnight on Wednesday.

Based on the assumption that the targeted area lies close to the Damascus-Beirut Highway, the major road used by Hezbollah, Al-Masdar News suggested the ultimate purpose of the mission was to kill one of the Shiite militia senior officials.

This is the second cross-border attack by Israel into the Syrian territory in four days. On Sunday, it carried out an airstrike on “an abandoned military facility” in the south of the Syrian Golan Heights which served as a location for Islamic State militants, according to the IDF spokesman. The attack was carried out in retaliation after IDF patrol was shelled by small arms and mortar fire across the border on the Israeli part of the Golan Hights by an IS-linked Shuhada al-Yarmouk group, Israeli media reported. </s> Syria said Israeli jets attacked several military sites near the capital Damascus and the central city of Homs early Monday, lightly injuring several people.

State news agency SANA said that Syrian air defense had intercepted several of the incoming missiles that were fired from Lebanese airspace.

The report said explosions damaged some houses and lightly injured several people in Sahnaya, a neighborhood of Damascus.

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There was no response from the Israel Defense Forces, which rarely comments on reported strikes.

Israel accuses Iran of seeking to set up a military presence in Syria that could be used to threaten the Jewish state.

The Israeli military has acknowledged carrying out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria in recent years on targets linked to Iran, which is backing President Bashar Assad’s regime in the Syrian civil war.

The reported strikes came just hours after an Israeli satellite imagery analysis company said Syria’s entire S-300 air defense system appeared to be operational, indicating a greater threat to Israel’s ability to conduct airstrikes against Iranian and pro-Iranian forces in the country.

Until now, only three of the country’s four surface-to-air missile launchers had been seen fully erected at the Masyaf base in northwestern Syria.

Israel has threatened to destroy the S-300 system if it is used against its fighter jets, regardless of the potential blowback from Russia. </s> Syria on Sunday accused Israel of targeting an airbase in the central province of Homs, saying its defences hit a jet involved in the third such attack in five months.

“Our air defences are responding to an Israeli aggression and intercepting a number of missiles targeting the airport, hitting one of the attacking planes and forcing the rest to leave the airspace,” the official SANA news agency quoted a military source as saying.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that a missile bombardment killed an unspecified number of “Iranian and pro-regime fighters” at the T-4 base and was “likely to be Israeli”.

In addition to the Syrian army, Iranian fighters and Lebanese Hezbollah troops are also stationed at the airbase, according to the Observatory.

The facility has previously been targeted by repeated strikes Damascus blamed on Israel.

An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the latest incident, saying: “We do not comment on reports in the foreign media”.

Syrian state outlets published a video of a flash in the dark sky, claiming it showed the air defences responding to the bombardment.

Since the start of Syria’s civil war in 2011, Israel has repeatedly targeted positions of the Syrian army and Lebanon’s Shiite movement Hezbollah backing it inside the country.

Israel usually does not claim the strikes, but has long said it will not allow Iran to establish a military presence in Syria.

On April 9, missiles targeted the T-4 airbase in the central province of Homs, killing up to 14 fighters, including seven Iranians.

Moscow, Tehran and Damascus accused Israel of also carrying out those raids.

The airbase was also hit on February 10, after Israel accused Iranian forces at the T-4 base of sending a drone into Israeli territory.

After bombing Iranian units in Syria in retaliation, an Israeli F-16 was shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft fire.

Israel then carried out what it called “large-scale” raids on Syrian air defence systems and Iranian targets, which reportedly included T-4.

Israel seized a large swathe of the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in 1981, in a move never recognised by the international community.

The two countries are technically still at war.

In May there was an unprecedented escalation between Israel and Iran in Syria, with the Israeli army claiming it hit dozens of Iranian military targets across the border in response to what it said were rockets fired by Iranians at the occupied Golan Heights.

Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu said last month that Israel would “not tolerate the Iranian military entrenchment in Syria”.

“The consequences are not merely to the Iranian forces there but to the Assad regime as well,” he said.

Sunday’s strikes coincided with regime progress, backed by Russian support, in the nearby southern province of Daraa.

After a blistering military operation and a ceasefire deal with rebels, government forces are re-establishing control over the entire southern province on the border with Israel. </s> BEIRUT (AFP) - A massive explosion struck near Damascus International Airport early on Thursday (April 27) setting off large fires, a monitoring group said, without specifying the cause.

The blast was outside the airport itself. It was not immediately clear whether it was the result of an air strike or a ground attack, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Israeli warplanes have hit the airport and other bases around the capital in the past, targeting what it said were weapons stockpiles of its Lebanese foe Hezbollah, which is allied with the Syrian government.

Hezbollah's Al-Manar television said the explosion was "probably" caused by an Israeli air strike.

"The blast was huge," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. "It's unclear what caused the explosion but there are fires raging at the site." Al-Manar said the strike caused only material damage.

"Al-Manar's correspondent reported that an explosion struck at dawn on Thursday in fuel tanks and a warehouse near Damascus International Airport and that it was probably the result of an Israeli strike," the channel said.

The airport lies about 25km south-east of the capital.

It was hit by Israeli air strikes in December 2014, Syrian state media reported at the time.

Israel does not usually confirm or deny each individual raid it carries out.

But last month, it said it had carried out several strikes near the Syrian desert city of Palmyra, targeting what it said were "advanced weapons" belonging to Hezbollah.

The strikes prompted Syria to launch retaliatory ground to air missiles, one of which was intercepted over Israeli territory in the most serious flare-up between the two neighbours since the Syrian civil war began six years ago.

Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman threatened to destroy Syrian air defence systems if they were used again.

On Jan 13, Syria accused Israel of bombing Mazzeh air base in the western suburbs of the capital. There were several strikes near the same base last year.

In April 2016, Netanyahu admitted for the first time that Israel had attacked dozens of convoys in Syria that he said were transporting weapons destined for Hezbollah.

Israel and Syria are still technically at war, though the armistice line had remained largely quiet for decades until 2011 when the Syrian conflict began.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a devastating 34-day war in 2006 which killed 1,200 people in Lebanon, mainly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers. </s> Syria and Israel engaged in the most serious incident between the two countries since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war six years ago overnight on Thursday, as Israeli Air Force Planes struck several targets in Syria.

The General Command of the Army and the Armed Forced announced on Friday that the Syrian air defense downed one of four Israeli warplanes that violated the Syrian airspace and targeted a military site in the eastern countryside of Homs.

According to a statement by the Command, the four Israeli aircrafts violated the Syrian airspace in al-Breij area through the Lebanese territories at 2:40 am.

The Israeli warplanes targeted a military site near Palmyra in the eastern countryside of Homs, said the Army’s Command, confirming that the Syria air defense forces confronted the enemy’s aircrafts and shot down one of them inside the occupied territories, hit another and forced the other two to withdraw.

The Israeli army said that none of the missiles struck the jets, though in Syria, the military claimed Friday that one Israeli jet had been shot down and another damaged.

The Israeli army said the rocket fired toward Israel was not among Syria’s most advanced and the incident was the first confirmed instance of operational use of the Arrow system – meant to challenge the threat of ballistic missiles – despite being first delivered to the army in the late 90s.

According to the Israeli army, the aircraft had already returned to Israeli airspace when Syrian launched its air-defense rockets.

There were no Israeli casualties in the incident, and the IOF military spokesperson’s unit confirmed Israel struck targets in Syria in an exceptionally rare statement.

There have been several reports over the past five years that Israel has targeted weapons convoys in Syria headed for Hezbollah in Lebanon, but until now Israel has not officially addressed these claims.

Earlier in the night, the IOF confirmed sirens sounded in the Jordan Valley in eastern Israel.

Less than a month ago, on February 22, Lebanese reports indicated that Israeli forces had struck an arms convoy outside of Damascus in an attacked carried out from Lebanese airspace.

One month before that, on January 13, the Syrian government warned of repercussions to what it called a “flagrant” attack after the army told state media that Israeli missiles had struck a military airport west of Damascus.
The Israeli Air Force resumes bombing against suspected Hezbollah-related targets in Syria, with a fourth round of bombings occurring near military sites near Damascus.