Syria reports Israeli missile attack near Damascus, 7 killed

The missiles were launched from Lebanese air space, according to the report.

By David Isaac, World Israel News

Israel attacked an ammunition dump south of Damascus early on Monday, SANA, Syria’s official news agency, reports.

The attack took place at around 5:00 a.m., a Syrian military source told SANA. The source said that most of the Israeli missiles were intercepted and shot down. Nevertheless, reports from Damascus said that large explosions were heard from the ammunition dump.

The missiles were launched from Lebanese air space, according to the report. Israel has attacked from Lebanese air space before.

The report, quoting the military source, initially said that there were no human casualties. However, SANA later said, “Three civilians were martyred and four others wounded, including a child, because shrapnel from Israeli missiles fell on houses.” It later raised the number to seven.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based opposition war monitoring group, said the Israeli missile strike targeted an Iranian stronghold near the capital that housed its forces.

Israel did not confirm or deny the report. However, Arutz 7 reports that Defense Minister Naftali Bennett “alluded” to a coming operation against Iranian forces based in Syria.

“Keep your ears open to what you see and hear,” Bennett said, speaking at a press conference on Sunday.

“We aren’t just continuing our work preventing Iran from entrenching itself in Syria, we’ve moved decisively from preventative action to forcing [Iranian forces] out.”

Hours later, SANA reported on the attack.

The attack comes after another last week on Monday, April 20th. The Associated Press said an Israeli airstrike in central Syria killed nine fighters, including six who were not Syrians and some who were loyal to the Hezbollah terror group.

Iranian forces operate in Israel’s civil war-torn neighbor with virtual carte blanche from Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. Both Israel and its terror proxy in Lebanon and Syria, Hezbollah, are sworn to Israel’s destruction.

Israel has routinely communicated that Iranian troops operating near its borders is a red line that it will not tolerate. To that end, Israel has launched a series of airstrikes mainly targeting Iranian and Hezbollah forces in Syria. It rarely confirms the attacks and did not comment on Monday’s airstrike.