Syrian air defenses confronted Israeli missiles targeting an area near the capital, Damascus, downing some of them, Syria's state news agency SANA reported Monday citing a military source. It said the missiles came from the skies over eastern Lebanon, and targeted outposts in the vicinity of Damascus, resulting in material losses. There was no comment from Israel on the attack which occurred shortly after 3 a.m. in Damascus. Israel carries out raids on Syria mostly overnight. "At 3:05 am today, the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial assault with a volley of missiles... targeting some points on the outskirts of Damascus," the official SANA news agency said. "Our air defenses responded to the attack and intercepted some" of the missiles, it added. A UK-based opposition war-monitoring group said the strikes targeted arms depots of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group in the eastern part of the Qalamoun mountains, northeast of Damascus, according a report by the Associated Press news agency. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes ignited fires but had no immediate word on any casualties. The war monitor, which relies on sources inside Syria, said the attack sparked fires "in military outposts and arms depots belonging to Hezbollah". Israel has staged hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria over the past decade of the civil war in the Arab country, but rarely acknowledges such operations. Israel has acknowledged, however, that it is targeting bases of Iran-allied militias, such as Hezbollah. It says it is going after positions and arms shipments believed to be bound for the groups. Hezbollah is fighting on the side of Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces in the country's civil war. Israel says Iranian presence on its northern frontier is a red line, justifying its strikes on facilities and weapons inside Syria. — Agencies
