Israel Launches Air Strike Over Damascus, Syria Says

Airstrikes attributed to Israel over Syria's capital Damascus early Wednesday critically wounded one soldier, Syrian state media reported.

The state news agency Sana reported that the attack caused some material damage, but it is not clear what was exactly targeted.

In the past six years Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes against Iranian targets in Syria, including weapons depots, convoys and militia bases.

Israel has vowed to stop Tehran’s military expansion that could open a second front against Israel, similar to the border with Lebanon.

Video posted by Syrian news channel Al-Ikhbariya showed lights flickering in the sky over Damascus on Wednesday morning, in what it said were strikes being intercepted.

SANA also claimed that Syrian air defenses shot down some of the missiles.

The last suspected Israeli airstrike on Syria was on May 29, targeting locations in the vicinity of Damascus.

Israel has also targeted the international airport in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo several times this past year, often putting it out of commission.

Iran intervened in the Syrian civil war in 2011 to save Bashar al-Assad’s regime that had close ties with Tehran and allowed weapons and assistance to flow to Hezbollah in Lebanon. With crucial Iranian and Russian military assistance Assad has regained most of the territories lost to the rebels but remains highly dependent on Moscow and Tehran.