Syria intercepts Israeli missiles over Damascus, state media reports

Israeli missiles were intercepted on Sunday evening

Syrian air defences intercepted "most" Israeli missiles aimed at Damascus on Sunday, Syrian state news agency Sana said.

Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Israel has routinely carried out raids there, mostly against Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah forces and government troops.

"At 10.16 this evening the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial attack from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan on some targets in the Damascus area," Sana reported a military source as saying.

"Our air defence confronted the missiles and downed most of them."

There was no immediate report of casualties.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the strike hit the area of Sayyida Zeinab south of Damascus, where Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Lebanese Hezbollah are present.

The Israeli army said it did not comment on reports in foreign media.

Israeli state broadcaster Kan had reported that leaders of Israel's security establishment met on Sunday evening to discuss an attack on an Israeli-owned vessel in the Gulf of Oman this week.

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz on Saturday said he believed Iran was behind Thursday's explosion on the MV Helios Ray, a vehicle carrier.

Israel rarely confirms strikes in Syria, its army has said it hit about 50 targets in the war-torn country in 2020.

It has consistently vowed to prevent its arch-enemy Iran from gaining a foothold in Syria.

This month, Israeli missile strikes against arms depots near Syria's capital killed at least nine pro-regime militia fighters, the Observatory reported.