AMMAN (Reuters) – Syria said on Sunday it had successfully repulsed an Israeli rocket salvo. Meanwhile, Israeli police said debris from a Syrian anti-aircraft missile hit a remote town, but no one was injured.
In recent months, Israel has escalated its attacks on Syrian airports and air bases to prevent Iran from using its air supply lines. Weapons are delivered through these supply lines to allies in Syria and Lebanon, including the Lebanese organization Hezbollah.
Syrian state media said Syrian air defenses intercepted Israeli missiles in central Syria and shot down most of them. The Syrian army said in a statement that some of the rockets that flew over part of the Lebanese capital Beirut landed near the city of Homs, causing only property damage.
Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.
An Israeli military spokesman said fighter jets hit various locations, including Syrian air defense batteries, and fired anti-aircraft missiles at Israel.
After airstrikes were heard across Israel, debris from Syrian missiles fell in the town of Lahat, about 180 kilometers south of the ceasefire line between the two countries, according to Israeli police. No casualties were reported. Local media aired images of what appeared to be the charred front end of a large rocket standing upright in a clearing between a residential building and a field tail fin.
The Israeli military confirmed the fighter plane was unharmed during the incident.
Israeli military experts suspect the attack is part of an ongoing escalation of a low-intensity conflict aimed at countering a growing Iranian presence in Syria. Iran’s influence in the country has grown since the country backed President Bashar al-Assad in a civil war that erupted in 2011.
Iran-allied fighters, including Hezbollah, now largely control regions in eastern, southern and northwestern Syria, as well as several suburbs around the capital.
