Syria accuses Israel of carrying out airstrikes on capital, wounding two soldiers

By EMANUEL FABIAN 19 July 2023, 1:32 am  

This image circulating online purports to show flames and smoke rising from a site in Damascus following an alleged Israeli airstrike in Syria, early July 19, 2023 (Social media; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Israeli fighter jets carried out strikes against targets in the Syrian capital Damascus shortly after midnight on Wednesday, wounding two soldiers, Syria’s state-run media reported.

Syria’s state news agency, SANA, said the Israeli Air Force warplanes launched their missiles from over the Golan Heights, targeting a number of sites in and around Damascus.

SANA, citing a military source, said Syrian air defenses responded to the Israeli incursion, downing “most” of the missiles. Syria regularly claims to intercept Israeli missiles, though military analysts doubt such assertions.

Still, the state-run media outlet said that “material damage” was caused to the sites that were targeted, and two soldiers were wounded.

Images circulating online showed flames and smoke rising from several sites in the capital.

The conditions of the two soldiers were not immediately clear. In recent years, numerous Syrian soldiers serving in air defense units have been killed in Israeli airstrikes.

The last reported Israeli strike in Syria occurred on July 6, when IAF jets allegedly struck targets near Damascus.

That strike came days after a Syrian anti-aircraft missile exploded in Israeli airspace amid a separate alleged Israeli strike. The IAF later said it targeted the Syrian air defense battery in response.

While Israel’s military does not, as a rule, comment on specific strikes in Syria, it has admitted to conducting hundreds of sorties against Iran-backed groups attempting to gain a foothold in the country, over the last decade.

The Israeli military says it also attacks arms shipments believed to be bound for those groups, chief among them Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Additionally, airstrikes attributed to Israel have repeatedly targeted Syrian air defense systems.