Four Syrian soldiers were killed and three wounded in an Israeli strike Wednesday morning before dawn near the capital, Damascus, Syrian state media reported.
This was the third alleged Israeli attack in Syria this month.
State television said Syrian air defenses had responded to the Israeli attack. “Our air defenses have faced Israeli aggression on the outskirts of Damascus,” SANA reported.
Syrian state media quoted an unidentified Syrian military official as saying that surface-to-surface missiles had been fired from northern Israel at military positions near Damascus.
The official said most of the Israeli missiles had been shot down and that the Syrian military was still investigating the “results of the aggression”.
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The Syrian army says it is firing incoming missiles after almost every alleged Israeli strike, which Israeli military officials and civil defense analysts have largely dismissed as empty boasting.
SANA has released a video claiming to be showing an air defense missile moving through the night sky.
In a later statement, the broadcaster said four soldiers had been killed, three wounded and “some material damage” had been caused.
Syria announced two other Israeli attacks near Damascus earlier this month, including a rare air strike during the day.
Following the alleged daily attack, local media reported explosions near the town of Masiaf, which is believed to be used as a base for Iranian forces and pro-Iranian militias and has been repeatedly attacked in recent years in attacks attributed to Israel.
In early March, Israeli strikes near Damascus killed two Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers. The guards vowed to avenge the killings and subsequently struck at what they claimed to be Israel’s “strategic center” in autonomous Kurdistan in Iraq.
As a rule, the Israeli military has not commented on specific strikes in Syria, but admits it has carried out hundreds of launches against Iranian-backed groups trying to gain a foothold in the country. It also says it is attacking weapons shipments believed to be targeted by these groups.
Israeli strikes continue in Syrian airspace, which is largely controlled by Russia, even since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine.
Israel has found itself in conflict with Russia as it increasingly supports Ukraine. However, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett avoids criticizing Russia directly, seeking to preserve Israel’s freedom of movement in the Syrian sky.
Separately, an Israeli military drone crashed in Syria on Tuesday. The Israeli Defense Forces said the incident was under investigation. No sensitive information has been lost as a result of the crash, and there is no risk of intelligence being removed from the device, the military said.
The agencies contributed to this report.
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