Syria’s air defenses have been activated in response to a wave of “Israeli aggression” for the third time in four days, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported on Sunday.
The attack came from Lebanese airspace at around 12:35am local time, targeting the city of Homs and its surroundings, an unnamed military official told SANA. The military source confirmed “some material damages” and at least five injuries among soldiers, after air defenses failed to intercept some of the missiles.
The latest air raid came after two nights of strikes on the Syrian capital and its suburbs. The first barrage of missiles hit Damascus early Thursday, shortly after midnight local time. The Syrian military accused the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of conducting the attack, which came from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and injured at least two soldiers, in addition to causing some “material damage.”
Another wave of missiles targeted a location in the Damascus countryside the next night at around 12:17am local time, but resulted in no casualties, according to the Syrian military.
However, Iran later confirmed that a military instructor from its Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was killed in the Friday strike, promising that Israel’s “criminal” act will not go “unanswered.”
The IDF has not commented on any of the attacks, in line with its longstanding policy of not discussing operations conducted outside of the country. However, Israeli warplanes have repeatedly bombed targets inside Syria over the past decade, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once acknowledging that there have been “hundreds” of strikes.
On the occasions that the IDF comments on the attacks, they claim to be hitting Iranian and Hezbollah targets in pre-emptive self-defense operations against Tehran’s growing influence in Syria. Damascus has repeatedly protested the raids as a violation of Syrian sovereignty, to no avail.