Syria says its air defenses intercept ‘most of Israeli missiles’ fired on Damascus

Syrian media reported on Sunday that the country’s air defenses have thwarted an Israeli aerial attack on targets in the capital Damascus, intercepting and shooting down several missiles.

A military source told Syria's official news agency SANA that "at 01:10 o’clock (local time) on Monday, January 21, 2019, the Israeli enemy launched land and air strikes and through successive waves of guided missiles."

The source added that "immediately our air defenses dealt with the situation and intercepted the hostile missiles, downing most of them before reaching their targets as they continue their heroic response to the aggression."

According to Press TV’s correspondent, the attack lasted for over an hour, and the explosions were the loudest in months.

Reports said a military airport near Damascus were among the targets. Israel’s military claimed immediately after the attack that it had struck Iranian targets in Syria.

The attack came a few hours after a similar incident, in which Syrian air defense forces repelled an Israeli aerial aggression in the Arab country’s south.

PressTV-Syrian air defense repels Israeli strike: State media

Syrian air defense units have thwarted an Israeli aerial attack in the Arab country’s south, state media reported.

"Our air defense systems thwarted ... an Israeli air aggression ... and prevented it from achieving any of its goals," SANA quoted an unnamed military official as saying on Sunday, without giving further details.

The report added that the rare daylight missile attack had targeted localities in and around the Syrian capital, Damascus. Nearly all Israeli missile attacks have so far occurred overnight or during the early hours of the day.

Meanwhile, Russia's National Defense Control Center, cited by RIA news agency, said in a statement that the Israeli assault was conducted by four warplanes and targeted an airport in southeastern Damascus.

RIA further cited the center that the attack had not left any victims and that the airport was not damaged.

PressTV-Russia warns Israel against more Syria airstrikes

Russia warns Israel it will not tolerate any more airstrikes near the Damascus International Airport in Syria’s capital.

On January 11, the Syrian military said its defense units managed to shoot down “most” of Israeli missiles fired toward Damascus late at night.

The Israeli regime launches airstrikes on the Syrian territory from time to time. Such aggressive moves are usually viewed as attempts to prop up terrorist groups that have been suffering defeats at the hands of Syrian government forces.

In October 2018, Moscow equipped Damascus with the advanced S-300 surface-to-air missiles, days after Israeli warplanes attacked Syrian targets using a Russian surveillance plane flying nearby as a shield, misleading the Syrian air defenses to shoot it down.

Since then Israel has been very careful with its operations over Syria.

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