Israeli fighter jets have pummeled Syrian territory with missiles, targeting dozens of military installations belonging to both the Syrian army and Iranian Quds Force, the Israeli military has said.
Following reports in Syrian state media that Syria’s aerial defenses shot down hostile missiles, destroying the majority of the projectiles before they could reach their targets, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed the attack, saying it conducted “wide-scale strikes of Iranian Quds Force & Syrian Armed Forces targets in Syria” on Wednesday night.
#BREAKING: We just carried out wide-scale strikes of Iranian Quds Force & Syrian Armed Forces targets in Syria in response to the rockets fired at Israel by an Iranian force in Syria last night.
The Israeli military noted that the massive bombing campaign was in response “to the rockets fired at Israel by an Iranian force in Syria last night.” On Tuesday, the IDF said that its Iron Dome missile shield took down four missiles that reportedly were launched from Syrian territory. All of them were intercepted in the air.
The IDF confirmed that Damascus deployed its air defenses to repel the attack by the Israeli fighter jets, thus defying a warning by Tel Aviv to not attempt mount any response to the hellfire.The IDF further claimed it destroyed “a number of Syrian aerial defense batteries” as they were activated to thwart the aggression.
During our strike of Iranian & Syrian terror targets, a Syrian air defense missile was fired despite clear warnings to refrain from such fire. As a result, a number of Syrian aerial defense batteries were destroyed.
Referring to the Syrian government as a “regime,” the Israeli military justified the bombardment saying that they hold Damascus responsible for “allowing” attacks against Israel.
While the Israeli armed forces claimed in its statement to have engaged an array of military targets, including command HQs, weapons depots, military bases and anti-aircraft missiles, Syria’s state media reported that the airstrike instead destroyed at least two residential buildings and led to injuries among civilians.
