Israeli warplanes attacked a Hezbollah weapons depot outside of Damascus in the early hours of Friday morning, The Times of Israel reported.
According to reports in Arabic media outlets, the three separate strikes were carried out near Damascus International Airport, an area which is a stronghold of the Iranian-backed terrorist organization.
“Israeli warplanes targeted with rocket fire a weapons depot belonging to Hezbollah near the airport,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Images of the alleged Israeli strikes surfaced on social media, which show fire and smoke rising from the area around Damascus airport.
There have been no confirmations or denials from Israel, Syria or Hezbollah on any of the reports.
Israel has for years carried out airstrikes in Syrian territory to contain and destroy the military infrastructure of its enemies, including Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles and Iranian-made missiles, as well as Hezbollah outposts.
An Israeli air raid on a depot controlled by the Syrian regime two weeks ago hit a supply of chemical weapons being transferred to Hezbollah. Earlier this week, a Hezbollah drone was shot down by an Israeli Air Force Patriot missile, after it entered the demilitarized zone on the Israel-Syria border. In January, Israeli jets struck a military airfield near Damascus in an attempt to prevent Hezbollah from obtaining highly-accurate Iranian surface-to-surface missiles.
While the attack was never confirmed by Israeli civilian or military officials, Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz hinted that Israel was behind the strike. He told Army Radio that he could ”confirm that the incident in Syria completely conforms to Israel’s policy” of preventing Iran from smuggling illicit weapons to its terror proxy Hezbollah.
[Photo: Wikimedia Commons/ Israel Defense Forces]
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