Israeli Airstrikes Hit Syria, Officials Say Iran’s Quds Force Is Target

Israeli Army warns Syria against any sort of retaliation

A series of explosions have been reported in and around the Syrian capital city of Damascus on Sunday and into early Monday morning. Eschewing their transitional secrecy about the process, the Israeli Army tweeted almost immediately taking credit for the attacks.

Officially, the Israeli attacks are targeting the Iranian Quds Force inside Syrian territory. There are no details on what was actually hit, but this has generally meant Shi’ite militias and various warehouses around the Damascus airport.

Syrian media reported that for the first time ever, they deployed Buk-M2 interceptors against the Israeli missiles, and that most of the Israeli airstrikes, particularly those carried out during daylight, were intercepted.

Israeli media also reported that Syria had fired a single surface-to-surface missile into the Golan Heights in retaliation, after the Israeli Army’s tweet warning Syria against trying to do anything about the attacks. There was no word on the type of missile in this case, but Israel claimed to have intercepted it with an Iron Dome at any rate.

The Netanyahu government has made a big point of continuing to attack Syria irrespective of warnings from Russia, and has always insisted Iran is the target. While this strike has last mystery surrounding it than most, it remains unclear what was actually hit, and what casualties, if any, were inflicted.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.