Israel fires rockets at Syrian army positions
Syrian military said it intercepted projectiles sent in from Israeli territory
January 9, 2018
Israeli forces carried out air strikes and fired rockets at targets in Syria overnight, causing damage to a “military position”, the Syrian army said on Tuesday.
The army said that it “hit” an Israeli aircraft and intercepted some rockets fired from Israeli territory.
Israeli jets fired missiles at the Al Qutaifa area near Damascus from Lebanese airspace at 2.40am local time, said the army, adding that the Israeli forces then fired ground-to-ground rockets from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Read more: Israel's attack on Syria reveals new fault lines
The Israeli military refused to comment, said Reuters.
In August, an Israeli official said that the air force had struck in Syria about 100 times. Israel usually does not confirm or deny such operations.
The Syrian army said that Israel was using the attacks to support militant groups in Syria and warned of serious repercussions.
Meanwhile, Russia said on Tuesday that it has enough troops in Syria to withstand any possible attacks by militants on its bases.
"That contingent that remains, the military infrastructure that remains, at the Hmeimim and Tartus military bases, they are completely capable of fighting these occasional terrorist acts," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Reuters.
Militants had attacked Russia’s bases overnight on January 6 using 13 armed drones.
Also on Tuesday, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that its military will continue its operation in Syria’s Afrin and Manbij regions
In 2016, Turkey launched the Euphrates Shield operation on its Syrian border to eradicate what it called a "corridor of terror", made up by the dual threat of ISIL and Syrian Kurdish fighters.
Updated: January 9, 2018 02:24 PM
