Israel Targets Syrian Air Defense Sites, Causing Significant Damage

Attack was launched concurrently to a drone raid on Iran’s Isfahan

Alongside Israel’s drone attack on the Iranian city of Isfahan, Israel carried out missile strikes against army targets in southern Syria, hitting air defense sites in the southern Daraa Province and Sweida Province, near the Jordanian border.

Six Israel warplanes were said to be active across the south of Syria in the course of the attacks. They went after a radar site in the area, which was connected to Syria’s comparatively advanced air defense systems.

The Syrian Defense Ministry reported the air defense unit was struck by missiles, and caused material damage. It is unclear if there were any casualties, but so far there has been no report of them.

Interestingly, though the warplanes were active across the area for quite some time, it does not appear that Syria’s air defense systems were activated against them and no attempt was made to shoot them down.

Timed concurrently to the Iran attack, it is probable that Israel considered this part of their “retaliation” against Iran, as they treat Syria as a de facto proxy of Iran.

Israel carries out attacks on Syria fairly regularly, and there have been over a hundred such strikes against targets inside Syria, mostly targeting Syria’s military or its Iranian advisers.

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.