Syria – Mesrena Elyoum
The Russian military announced, on Tuesday, that seven out of eight missiles fired by Israeli warplanes were downed by the Syrian Air Defense Forces.
The commander of the Russian Military Reconciliation Center in Syria, Admiral Vadim Kolet, said the strikes, which were launched by four Israeli F-16 fighter jets on Monday, targeted facilities in the southeast of the Syrian province.
Collette added that the Syrian air defence units that shot down the missiles used Buk-M2 and Pantsyr-S systems supplied by Russia.
He also indicated that one of the missiles hit a scientific research facility in Al-Safira.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the latest missile attack targeted weapons depots and bases of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard operating in the area.
While local authorities are still assessing the entire damage, the main electricity cable leading to the city of Aleppo is being repaired after a direct hit.
Iran-backed militias have beefed up their presence in Syria over the past year, and Russia, in particular, has built a robust military campaign in the country since 2015.
Russian military aid has helped the administration of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad regain most of the territory captured by the opposition.
Israel has avoided discussing attacks against Iranian-backed forces over the years. As with Monday’s rocket launch, Israel has yet to comment.
The Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, reported that the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, said that there were five casualties during the missile attack.
Abd al-Rahman reportedly said three of the dead were either Lebanese or Iranian, while two were Syrians.
Syria has not yet confirmed whether the latest airstrike has resulted in casualties.
The opposition war watch group also said a helicopter attack on the Golan Heights in May targeted a man working for Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah.
At that time, Syrian state TV reported that the helicopter had hit an unidentified civilian who was then taken to hospital.
Earlier in May, Israeli missiles were launched towards northwest Syria. Six people were wounded and one died in the attack.
The Syrian government has not commented on whether or not the Israeli airstrikes targeted Iranian-backed assets because the government said the information was limited to advisers.