Syria's air defences intercept Israeli missiles near Damascus

No casualties were reported, state media says

A missile flies over Damascus International Airport in 2018. Syrian air defences intercepted Israeli missiles south of the capital on Monday, state news agency Sana said. EPA/Arab News Agency

Syrian air defence systems intercepted Israeli missiles south of the capital Damascus on Monday, with no casualties reported.

"The Israeli enemy carried out an air strike from the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting points south of Damascus," and most of the missiles were shot down, state news agency Sana reported, citing a military source.

"The losses were limited to material damage."

An AFP correspondent in the capital Damascus heard loud noises in the evening.

The air strike was aimed at sites in the southern Damascus countryside, where the Lebanese Hezbollah group and Syrian air defence units are active, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.

Last month, Israeli surface-to-surface missiles killed at least three Syrian officers near Damascus, said the Observatory — which has a wide network of sources inside Syria.

The Israeli strikes were aimed at Iranian positions and weapon depots near Damascus, the monitor said at the time.

Israel's hundreds of air strikes in Syria

Since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes against its neighbour, aiming at government troops as well as allied Iran-backed forces and fighters of Lebanon's Shiite group Hezbollah.

While Israel rarely comments on individual strikes, it has acknowledged carrying out hundreds of them.

The Israeli military has defended them as necessary to prevent arch-foe Iran from gaining a foothold on its doorstep.

The conflict in Syria has killed nearly half a million people and forced about half of the country's pre-war population from their homes.