Syria downs Israeli missiles as new raid targets Homs
Syrian air defenses have intercepted and shot down Israeli missiles after the regime carried out a new airstrike against targets near the western city of Homs, the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) quoted a military source as saying.
The Israeli military staged the airstrike “from the direction of the northeast [of the Lebanese capital city] of Beirut targeting some areas in the vicinity of the city of Homs,” the military source said, Press TV reported.
Following the strike, Syrian air defenses responded by intercepting the incoming Israeli missiles midair and shooting down most of them.
The air raid only led to some material damage, the source concluded.
In a brief statement early Sunday that did not mention the airstrikes, Israel’s army said a Syrian anti-aircraft rocket “appears to have exploded in the air” in Rahat.
Several hours later the military claimed it had targeted “an anti-aircraft battery in Syria, as a response to the launch of an anti-aircraft rocket from Syria,” AFP reported. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-controlled parts of neighboring Syria in recent years, but it rarely acknowledges them.
The last Israeli airstrike on Syria was on June 14, near the capital Damascus that left one soldier wounded.
Israel has also targeted the international airports in Damascus and the northern Syrian city of Aleppo several times over the past few years, often putting it out of commission.