Israel planes target positions in Syria

Israeli warplanes struck a Syrian military position in a rural area near Damascus today, triggering Syria’s air defence system which destroyed most of the missiles, a Syrian army statement carried by state television said.

Reuters reported the statement saying several missiles were launched by the Israeli jets from inside the territory of neighbouring Lebanon at 03:42am local time (01:42GMT).

“The general command of the armed forces holds Israel fully responsible for the dangerous consequences of its repeated, aggressive and uncalculated adventures,” the army statement said.

In Jerusalem, an Israeli military spokeswoman said: “We do not respond to such reports.”

Read: Syrian army says Israel fired at Syria with jets, missiles

The Syrian army said it had destroyed most of the Israeli missiles, but did not give details of any damage or casualties.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the missiles targeted “positions of the Syrian army and its allies” in the region of Jamraya, west of Damascus, which was also hit in December.

The Israeli air force has said it has struck arms convoys of the Syrian military and Lebanon’s Hezbollah nearly 100 times since the war in Syria began more than six years ago.