Syrian air defense units intercept Israeli missiles near Damascus, thwarting THIRD raid in a week – Russian Defense Ministry

The Syrian military intercepted two missiles fired by Israeli fighter jets at the Damascus suburb of Set Zaynab over the weekend, thwarting the third airstrike in just a week, using Russian-made air defense systems.

The airstrike was conducted from outside Syrian airspace at around 5:40am Sunday morning, when two Israeli F-16 jets fired two guided missiles targeting unspecified facilities in the town of Set (Sayyidah) Zaynab 10km south of Damascus.

Syrian air defense units equipped with Russian-made Buk-M2E systems successfully intercepted both of them, the head of the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria, Rear Admiral Vadim Kulit, said in a daily briefing.

On Wednesday night, two Israeli F-16 jets fired four guided missiles from Lebanese airspace at Syria’s Homs province. All of them were shot down, also using Russian-made Buk-M2Es.

On Monday night, four Israeli jets penetrated Syrian airspace through the area of At-Tanf on the Jordanian border, controlled by the US military, and fired eight missiles into Aleppo province. Seven of them were reportedly shot down by Buk-M2 and Pantsir-S systems, but the remaining one struck a scientific research facility in the town of Safira.

While Israeli officials rarely acknowledge the raids, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) warplanes have routinely rained down missiles on Syrian territory in recent years under the pretext of self-defense against the ‘Iranian threat’.

Damascus has protested the repeated attacks as blatant acts of aggression, while Russia, Turkey, and Iran recently jointly condemned the Israeli raids as violations of sovereignty and international humanitarian laws.

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