Click to see full-size image. Source: the Israeli Air Force.
Early on June 14, a series of Israeli airstrikes hit the southwestern outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, according to the official Syrian Arab News Agency.
The airstrikes were launched from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, a Syrian military source told the news agency, adding that several hostile munitions were successfully intercepted by Syrian air defenses. Despite this, the source said that a service member was severely wounded as a result of the airstrikes, which also caused some material losses.
Video footage that surfaced online showed a successful interception over Damascus as well as a large explosion in the city’s southwestern outskirts.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based monitoring group of unclear funding, reported that the Israeli airstrikes targeted ammunition depots of Iranian-backed forces near Damascus International Airport and the town of Kiswah. These claims are yet to be verified.
This was Israel’s first confirmed attack on Syria in June. Last month, two waves of strikes hit targets in the country’s northern and southern regions.
Israeli strikes targeted Aleppo International Airport as well as a complex of the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center located near the town of al-Safira in the southern countryside of the governorate on May 1. A later report alleged that the strikes targeted a secret Iranian unit responsible for manufacturing missiles and other weapons.
Later on May 28, another wave of airstrikes hit the outskirts of Damascus. At the time, it was reported that the targets were positions manned by Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
During more than a decade of civil war in Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of strikes against the country. However, it rarely claimed responsibility. Tel Aviv believes that its covert military campaign against Syria, which is known as “the war between the wars,” will prevent Iran from establishing a lasting presence there.
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