DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria’s air defenses engaged “hostile targets” over the capital of Damascus, state-run media said late Thursday.
Residents reported loud explosions that rocked the city shortly before midnight.
State news agency SANA quoted reports saying Syrian air defenses intercepted a number of missiles. It said the missiles approached from the southwest over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights
No further details were immediately available nor was it clear what was hit. A video carried by SANA showed what appeared to be Syrian air defenses firing over Damascus.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war, said suspected Israeli missiles targeted posts for Iranian-backed militias in the area between the Damascus international airport and the Sayeda Zeinab neighborhood, south of the capital. The Observatory said some of the missiles hit their targets. It didn’t say whether there were any casualties.
Israel does not usually comment on reports concerning its airstrikes in neighboring Syria, though it has frequently attacked what it says are Iranian targets there.
Iranian-backed fighters, including those of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group, have joined Syria’s war and are fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government forces.