Syria claims it stopped 'hostile targets' near Damascus amid Israeli raids

Raid on Abu Kamal city, near Iraqi border, killed 15

An Israeli soldier jumps off a tank in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, near the Israel-Syria frontier. Reuters

Israeli aircraft hit Syrian army posts on Monday in retaliation for attempts to lay explosives in the Golan Heights.

“The targets struck include observation posts and intelligence collection systems, anti-aircraft artillery facilities and command and control systems in Syrian Armed Forces bases,” the Israeli army said.

Israeli helicopters also fired rockets at the army near Quneitra in the south, and the regime activated its air-defence systems against "hostile targets" near Damascus, Syrian state news agency Sana reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported strikes earlier in the day on Abu Kamal city, near the Iraqi border. It said the dawn air raids killed 15 people.

Last month, Israeli army helicopters struck military targets in southern Syria in retaliation for missiles being fired towards Israel.

Israel did not directly blame Syrian forces, but said it held the Damascus government responsible.

A mask-clad civil society volunteer marches with an effigy depicting the SARS-CoV-2 virion, the agent responsible for the COVID-19 coronavirus disease, during an awareness campaign about the novel coronavirus pandemic, urging people to remain at home, in Syria's northwestern city of Idlib in Idlib province on March 24, 2020. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)

Syrian Kurdish passengers who were stranded in Damascus arrive in Qamishli in Syria's northeastern Hasakeh province on April 5, 2020, after being stranded in Damascus for the past weeks. (Photo by DELIL SOULEIMAN / AFP)

A drone image taken on April 9, 2020, shows a sanitation worker disinfecting a camp for displaced Syrians next to the Idlib municipal stadium in the northwestern Syrian city, during a campaign to limit the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)

A medic checks the body temperature of young passengers, as a preventive measure against the coronavirus, upon their arrival by bus in Syria's Kurdish area from Iraqi Kurdistan via the Semalka border crossing in northeastern Syria on February 26, 2020. (Photo by Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP)

A picture taken on April 27, 2020 shows Syrians who returned from Turkey standing at a quarantine facility in the countryside of the town of Jisr al-Shughur, west of the mostly rebel-held Syrian province of Idlib, on April 27, 2020 during the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. / AFP / Abdulaziz KETAZ

epa08392436 A truck for prevention against the COVID-19 coronavirus disease, operated by local NGO 'Violet Organization', drives through the streets of Idlib, Syria, 29 April 2020. EPA/YAHYA NEMAH

Artist Aziz al-Asmar paints a mural wishing for the well-being of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is in quarantine after being treated by a doctor who tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19), inside a damaged building in the town of Binnish in Syria's northwestern Idlib province on March 24, 2020. (Photo by Muhammad HAJ KADOUR / AFP)

A member of the Kurdish Internal Security Forces of Asayesh urges children to return home, in Syria's northeastern city of Hasakeh on April 30, 2020, following measures taken by the Kurdish-led local authorities there, to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. / AFP / DELIL SOULEIMAN

Syrian boys pose for a picture during an awareness workshop on Coronavirus (COVID-19) held by Doctor Ali Ghazal at a camp for displaced people in Atme town in Syria's northwestern Idlib province, near the border with Turkey, on March 14, 2020. (Photo by AAREF WATAD / AFP)

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on March 20, 2020 shows Syrian Red Crescent vehicles spraying disinfectant along a street in the capital Damascus, as part of measures against the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus disease. (Photo by - / SANA / AFP) / == RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / HO / SANA" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS ==

A volunteer from the Violet organisation disinfects a mosque in Syria's northwestern city of Idlib on April 25, 2020, from coronavirus (COVID-19) during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan. (Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)

Only a few people walk in the century-old covered bazaar of Hamidiya in Syria's capital Damascus on March 24, 2020, after measures were taken by the authorities to fight the novel coronavirus pandemic. - Across much of the Syrian capital, with squares and markets once thronging with people even during the war, are now almost entirely empty. Five cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the country since Sunday, and the authorities have ordered all non-essential businesses closed. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)

Researchers are examining the possibility of using inhalers to introduce stem cells into a patients lungs. AFP

A member of the Syrian Violet NGO disinfects a triage tent erected for suspected coronavirus patients outside the Ibn Sina Hospital in Syria's northwestern Idlib city on March 19, 2020. - Syrian authorities on March 13 announced measures aimed at preventing coronavirus from reaching the war-torn country, including school closures and a ban on smoking shisha in cafes, state media reported. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)

A young pupil follows a lesson on a mobile telephone inside a tent, in a camp for displaced Syrians in the village of Kafr Yahmoul in the northwestern Idlib province, amid the coronavirus pandemic on April 3, 2020. - Like in much of the world, educators in Syria are taking classes online after the country's various regions sent pupils home hoping to stem the COVID-19 pandemic. But distance learning is no small feat in a country battered by nine years of war, where fighting has displaced millions and the electricity supply is sporadic at best. (Photo by Aref TAMMAWI / AFP)

Earlier on Monday, the Israeli army said it had killed four men laying explosives near the Israeli-occupied sector of the Golan Heights.

“They were inside Israeli territory but beyond the fence,” a military spokesman said.

He said an Israeli commando unit lying in wait attacked the intruders with assault rifles and sniper fire, backed by air strikes.

“Our estimate is that all four were killed,” the spokesman said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that “the army thwarted an attempted attack on the Syrian front”.

“We don’t let our guard down,” Mr Netanyahu said.

Several Israeli media outlets reported that Monday’s actions were in response to an increased threat from Iran-backed Hezbollah, which has a significant presence in Syria.

Last month, five Iran-backed fighters were killed in an Israeli missile strike south of Damascus, the Observatory said.

Last week Monday, Israel said it had thwarted an infiltration attempt from Lebanon by up to five Hezbollah gunmen, a claim denied by the group.

Israel reported an exchange of fire that forced the men back into Lebanon. It said it fired artillery across the heavily guarded border for defensive purposes.

“We do not know at this stage and we cannot confirm a link between this terrorist squad and Hezbollah or Iranians,” an Israeli military spokesman said.

“We know that there are many different factions operating on Syrian soil.”

The Observatory said it was likely, but could not be confirmed, that the attackers were from the Syrian Resistance to Liberate the Golan, a Hezbollah-linked group.