Syria Reports Missiles Shot Down as Israel Attacks Damascus

Israeli forces continued their consistent attacks on Syria on Thursday, firing missiles from the occupied Golan Heights toward sites inside Damascus. Israeli reports suggested “Iranian targets” were attacked.

Israeli strikes in Syria, or for that matter inside Iraq, are almost always presented as targeting Iran, even though in practice many Israeli strikes are just hitting ordinary Shi’ite militias with no specific connection to Iran.

Either way, Syria’s air defenses were reported to have intercepted multiple hostile missiles over Damascus. It’s not clear how many were intercepted or hit, as Israel tends not to offer specifics on how many were fired, nor does Syria discuss what they didn’t intercept.

That Israel fired the missiles from Golan instead of sending fighters into Damascus airspace may represent a change, coming after the Russian Defense Ministry was deeply critical of Israel using civilian aircraft as cover for its raids.