Syria claims Israel airstrikes hit Damascus area

By Kaamil Ahmed

JERUSALEM (AA) - Israeli jets struck sites near the Syrian capital Damascus early Wednesday, local media reported.

The Israeli military refused to comment but the Syrian state-run Syrian Arab News Agency quoted an unidentified Syrian military source as saying two missiles, fired by Israeli jets from Lebanese airspace, hit the Damascus countryside.

London-based Arabic newspaper Rai al-Youm reported that the strikes targeted a Syrian regime military position and an arms convoy belonging to the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, which is fighting alongside regime troops.

In December 2015, Israeli warplanes are thought to have carried out an airstrike in Damascus that killed Hezbollah commander Samir Kuntar, who in 2008 was released after almost 30 years in an Israeli prison. Israel never officially confirmed the strike.

On Sunday, Israeli forces in the occupied Golan Heights clashed with militants they said were linked to Daesh and on Monday bombed an abandoned UN compound Israel said the group had been using as a base.

Since the outbreak of Syria’s civil war in 2011, the Israeli army has occasionally struck targets inside Syria, especially after shells fired from Syrian territory have fallen inside the Golan Heights, which Israel has occupied since 1967.