The Israeli army has carried out air strikes and fired rockets at an army base in Al-Qutayfah, northeast of the Syrian capital of Damascus, targeting the “Iranian arms supply line.”
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Israeli air strikes targeted early Tuesday positions for regime forces in Al-Qutayfah area and Lebanon’s “Hezbollah” weapons depot, igniting "successive explosions and fires, and causing material damage.”
Israel had earlier pledged to prevent using the Syrian territories for building Iranian bases or transfer advanced arms to “Hezbollah.”
The Syrian Army later said in a statement broadcast on state television that "at approximately 2:40 am, the Israeli Air Force fired a number of missiles over Syrian territory at Al Qutayfah, in the suburbs of the capital, Damascus. Our air defense systems responded and hit one of the planes."
Asked about the airstrikes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that his country “has a long-standing policy to prevent the transfer of game-changing weapons to Hezbollah in Syrian territory.”
Ehile Syrian media outlets were busy reporting about the airstrike, head of Mossad Yossi Cohen said at a Treasury committee meeting Tuesday that his country's intelligence agency has “eyes, ears and even more” trained on developments in Iran.
Separately, Russia’s Defense Ministry said that a US Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft was detected cruising between Tartus and Hmeimim during a UAV attack on the Russian military facilities in Syria, which was carried out by terrorists.
A source from the Defense Ministry was quoted as saying that “in a strange coincidence, a US Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft was cruising for more than four hours over the Mediterranean Sea at an altitude of 7,000 meters during a UAV attack on the Russian military facilities in Syria.”
The Pentagon responded to the Russian reports.
“Any suggestion that US or coalition forces played a role in an attack on a Russian base is without any basis in fact and is utterly irresponsible,” Marine Maj Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman was quoted as saying.
