FILE PHOTO An Israeli F-16 fighter jet © Amir Cohen / Reuters
Early on April 27, seven Syrian service members were killed or wounded when a wave of Israeli strikes hit military positions in the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus.
In a statement to the Syrian Arab News Agency, a Syrian military source said that the strikes were launched from the direction of Lake Tiberiasn in northern Israel.
“Our air defense means confronted the missiles of the Israeli aggressor and shot down some of them,” the unnamed source said. “After examining the results of the aggression, it was found that four service members were killed, three others were wounded and some material losses were sustained”.
One of the service members killed in the Israeli strike was a high-ranking officer of the Syrian Arab Army, Colonel Rifaat Ali Saleh.
Damascus International Airport was reportedly one of the targets of the Israeli strikes. This is yet to be verified by any credible source. The airport was attacked by the Israel on a number of occasions in the past.
A day before the strikes, an Israeli drone crashed in southern Syria. The Israeli Defense Forces said that the drone fell during “routine operations” and that the incident is being investigated.
This was the third Israeli attack on Syria this April. The first attack, which took place on April 9, targeted a research center, a weapons factory, a military base and a suspected air-defense site in the outskirts of the town of Masyaf in the western Hama countryside. The second attack, which took place on April 14, targeted a position of the SAA located near the town of Kafr Qouq in the western countryside of Damascus.
Several Israeli and Arab media sources reported that the recent Israeli strikes on Syria were carried out to prevent the delivery of advanced Iranian-made weapons to Hezbollah. Tel Aviv claims that the Syria is the main supply route for the Lebanese group.
