Beirut: Israeli warplanes flying over Lebanon fired missiles toward areas near the Syrian capital of Damascus late on Tuesday, hitting an arms depot and wounding three soldiers, Syrian state media reported, saying that most of the missiles were shot down by air defense units.
The TV station, quoting an unnamed military official, identified the warplanes as Israeli. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency earlier reported that Israeli warplanes were flying at low altitude over parts of southern Lebanon.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said Israeli airstrikes targeted three positions south of Damascus that are arms depots for Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group and Iranian forces.
The reported attack near Damascus is the first since US President Donald Trump announced last week that the US would withdraw its 2000 troops in Syria, a move that will leave control of the oil-rich eastern third of Syria up for grabs.
Following Trump’s announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel would “continue to act against Iran’s attempts to entrench itself militarily in Syria, and to the extent necessary, we will even expand our actions there.”
Read the article by in The Sydney Morning Herald.