Syria Intercepts Israeli Missile Barrage Targeting Damascus

Syrian air defenses intercepted an Israeli missile barrage targeting the vicinity of Damascus. (AFP file photo)
Syrian air defenses intercepted an Israeli missile barrage targeting the vicinity of Damascus. (AFP file photo)
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Syria Intercepts Israeli Missile Barrage Targeting Damascus

Syrian air defenses intercepted an Israeli missile barrage targeting the vicinity of Damascus. (AFP file photo)
Syrian air defenses intercepted an Israeli missile barrage targeting the vicinity of Damascus. (AFP file photo)

Syrian air defenses confronted Israeli missiles targeting an area near the capital, Damascus, downing some of them, Syria's state news agency reported Monday.

SANA cited a military source as saying the missiles came from the skies over eastern Lebanon, and targeted outposts in the vicinity of Damascus, resulting in material losses.

No other details were immediately available, and there was no comment from Israel on the attack which occurred shortly after 3 a.m. in Damascus. Israel carries out raids on Syria mostly overnight.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes targeted a Hezbollah weapons cache in al-Qutayfah city, northeast of Damascus.

Israel has staged hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria over the past decade of the war in the Arab country, but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations.

Israel has acknowledged, however, that it is targeting bases of Iran-allied militias, such as Lebanon's Hezbollah. It says it is going after positions and arms shipments believed to be bound for the groups. Hezbollah is fighting on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in the country's war.

Israel says Iranian presence on its northern frontier is a red line, justifying its strikes on facilities and weapons inside Syria.



US Ambassador to Lebanon 'Very Happy' over Aoun's Election as President

People carry national flags as they hold a moment of silence marking the one-year anniversary of Beirut's port blast, near the site of the explosion in Beirut, Lebanon August 4, 2021. REUTERS/Emilie Madi Purchase Licensing Rights
People carry national flags as they hold a moment of silence marking the one-year anniversary of Beirut's port blast, near the site of the explosion in Beirut, Lebanon August 4, 2021. REUTERS/Emilie Madi Purchase Licensing Rights
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US Ambassador to Lebanon 'Very Happy' over Aoun's Election as President

People carry national flags as they hold a moment of silence marking the one-year anniversary of Beirut's port blast, near the site of the explosion in Beirut, Lebanon August 4, 2021. REUTERS/Emilie Madi Purchase Licensing Rights
People carry national flags as they hold a moment of silence marking the one-year anniversary of Beirut's port blast, near the site of the explosion in Beirut, Lebanon August 4, 2021. REUTERS/Emilie Madi Purchase Licensing Rights

US ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson said she was "very happy" over Lebanese army commander Joseph Aoun's election as president on Thursday, ending a more than two-year vacuum in the post.

Johnson and other foreign envoys had attended Thursday's session at the Lebanese parliament in which Aoun was elected.

For its part, France's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday said the election of a new Lebanese president turns a new page for the country and must now be followed by the appointment of a new government capable of carrying out reforms.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine said that a new government will have carry out reforms necessary for Lebanon's economic recovery, stability, security and sovereignty, and added that France calls on all Lebanese political leaders and authorities to work towards those goals.