Click to see full-size image. Source: the Israeli Air Force.
Early on July 19, a series of Israeli strikes targeted the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency.
Citing a military source, the official news agency said that Syrian air defenses had confronted Israeli missiles launched at 12.25 am local time [21:25 GMT] from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and “shot down most of them”. Two Syrian service members were wounded in the Israeli strike and there were “some material losses,” the unnamed source said.
A few hours later unofficial pro-government news sources reported that one of the service members had succumbed to his wounds.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group with unclear funding, said that the strikes targeted military positions near an airfield in the town of Dimas as well as the Beirut-Damascus highway west of the capital.
The main target of the strikes was military and logistic equipment of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, according to the London-based monitoring group, who reported false information about similar attacks in the past.
This was the third reported Israeli attack against Syria this month. On July 2, a series of airstrikes hit targets in the outskirts of Homs city. The Syrian military fired missiles at Israeli fighter jets, which launched the airstrikes from the direction of Lebanon. One of the missiles penetrated deep into Israel and exploded mid air. In response, the Israeli military targeted an air defense base near the town of al-Qadmus in the northern countryside of Tartus. Four Russian civilian specialists were reportedly wounded nearby.
Later on July 5, Israeli media reports said that warehouses storing “advanced Iranian weapons” near Damascus were hit by several airstrikes. The Syrian military did not use air defenses against the airstrikes as it normally does.
Israel has carried out hundreds of air attacks against Syria over the past decade, but it rarely acknowledges responsibility. Still, Israeli officials repeatedly warned that they will not allow their arch-foe Iran to expand its military presence in the war-torn country.
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assad must be one heck of a reserved guy, dealing with the constant idf attacks, to focus on the proxy forces and not strike back at the illegal entities controlling said proxies. perhaps he’s already been given more security assurances from putin and the trap for the idf is already being set.
no, ass-hat is just an incompetent asshole. and his troops are bumbling idiots that couldn’t fight themselves out of wet toilet paper. but do dream on fool. if it makes you happy.