Syria Denies Claim of Israeli Airstrikes Near Damascus

Observatory Claimed Three Israeli Rockets Hit Army Outposts

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, three Israeli rockets entered Syrian airspace today, hitting Syrian Army posts south of the capital city of Damascus. There were no reports of casualties in any of the incidents.

And no reports of incidents as far as the Syrian media is concerned. Syrian government sources denied the reported attacks, saying there were no Israeli airstrikes against any targets inside Israel on Wednesday.

Israel isn’t talking either, though that’s not unusual as Israeli officials generally don’t comment on their assorted attacks on Syrian territory. They were reported to have carried out two airstrikes last week as well, one targeting a Syrian missile base and the other hitting a Hezbollah site near the Lebanon border. Hezbollah denied that incident as well.

This decided lack of transparency on the on-again, off-again Israeli air war in Syria makes it difficult to ascertain how much is actually happening, as the only time anyone confirms any of the strikes is those rare occasions when a highly positioned Hezbollah figure or some such person is slain, and Hezbollah responds with threats to retaliate.

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.