SHAFAQNA- Syrian air defense forces have thwarted an Israeli aerial aggression in the Arab country’s south, state media say.
“Our air defense systems thwarted … an Israeli air aggression … and prevented it from achieving any of its goals,” Syria‘s official news agency SANA quoted an unnamed military official as saying on Sunday, without giving further details.
The report added that the rare daylight missile attack had targeted localities in and around the Syrian capital, Damascus. Nearly all Israeli missile attacks have so far occurred overnight or during the early hours of the day presstv reported .
The attack, launched by four Israeli F-16 jets, did not damage the airport and there were no casualties, the control center was cited as saying, according to reuters.
An Israeli military spokeswoman claimed that the regime’s so-called Iron Dome interceptor system managed to shoot down a Syrian rocket over Mount Hermon at the northern part of Syria’s Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the airport attack, saying that it was part of the country’s “permanent policy… to oppose Iran’s attempts to gain a foothold in Syria and to hurt those [who are] trying to hurt us”, rt told.
Damascus has repeatedly denounced Israeli airstrikes, stressing that they constitute a rampant violation of its state sovereignty. Russia has joined Syria in condemning Israeli operations. Officials blasted the IDF raids as reckless acts that endanger civilian flights in the area.