Military says Syrian airstrikes hit multiple locations, injuring soldiers

Air strikes hit multiple locations in southern Syria early Sunday, wounding one soldier, Syrian state media reported.

State news agency SANA cited an unnamed military official as saying that the air defense system shot down some of the missiles, which were launched from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights at around 12:42 a.m. local time. The attack caused “material damage” and injured one soldier, the statement said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the airstrikes also hit two military bases in the Qalamoun Mountains northeast of Damascus, where the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah operates. One of the targets was a weapons shipment, the observatory said.

The attack was Israel’s 24th suspected attack in Syria this year, the Observatory said. They killed 43 militants from various groups, including Hezbollah and Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, as well as nine civilians.

Israeli officials did not immediately issue a statement on the attack. Israel has frequently launched attacks on Iran-linked targets in Syria but rarely acknowledged them. The attacks have escalated over the past five months against the backdrop of the war in Gaza and ongoing clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Last week, the Israeli army said it had launched 4,500 attacks on Hezbollah targets in the past five months, mostly in Lebanon and a few in Syria.

The military said in a statement that it “will not allow any attempt that could lead to Hezbollah consolidating its position on the Syrian front lines”.