Israeli jets struck a Syrian military base in al-Kiswa region in southern Damascus, Syria, announced the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Saturday.
Conflicting reports emerged on whether the target was an arms depot that are used by the regime or its Iran-backed militias.
Opposition sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that there was also a debate on whether the strike, carried out on midnight on Friday, was launched from Lebanese airspace.
The Syrian news agency SANA meanwhile said that Israeli missiles struck a military position near Damascus and Syria’s air defense system responded on Saturday, destroying two of them.
“The Israeli enemy launched...several surface-to-surface missiles towards a military position,” it said, adding there had been material losses at the site.
An Israeli military spokeswoman had declined to comment on earlier reports of such an attack overnight. The Israeli daily Haaretz reported however that the strike targeted a military base that Iran is building in al-Kiswa.
Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth said that the base was the same one that Britain’s BBC had released photographs of in November.
The base lies some 14 kilometers away from al-Kiswa and some 50 from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The BBC photos showed more than 20 low-rise buildings that are likely used by soldiers and for storing vehicles.
Local sources told the Anadolu Agency that the Israeli rockets targeted a military base in al-Manee mountain near al-Kiswa city. The base is under Iranian control and its harbors “Hezbollah” fighters, as well as a weapons and explosives factory. The strike also targeted a Syrian regime battalion in the area.
The opposition sources said that the major military base in al-Kiswa acts as a gathering point for Iran-backed militias in southern Syria. It also acts as a launching point for their battles in the region southwest of Damascus.
The Israeli air force said it struck arms convoys of the Syrian regime and Lebanon’s “Hezbollah” nearly 100 times during more than six years of the Syrian war.
