Israel warplanes hit airbase near Damascus: Syria state TV

Syria’s state television says Israeli military aircraft have targeted an airbase near the capital Damascus.

The attack took place on Wednesday, the television reported, verifying earlier unconfirmed reports that the Israeli air force had launched the raid against the el-Mezzeh outpost from the Lebanese airspace.

Large explosions rang out after the attack. Syria’s al-Ikhbariyah television channel said the explosions hit fuel depots at the base.

Lebanese al-Mayadeen channel, meanwhile, reported that Israeli airstrikes had hit an important Syrian military airport in the capital.

Last week, Israeli fighter jets carried out missile attacks from Lebanese skies against two targets close to the highway connecting Damascus to the Lebanese capital Beirut. Syria’s official news agency SANA cited an unnamed military source as saying that the missiles fell on the Saboura area west of Damascus.

The source said the Israeli assault was an attempt to “divert attention away from the successes of” government forces on the battleground against Takfiri militants.

Devoted to the cause of ousting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Israel has been a staunch supporter of the Takfiri terrorists fighting in the Arab country. The regime provides treatment to the terrorists in the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, parts of which it has occupied since 1967.

In the past, Israeli jets have time and again carried out sorties inside the Syrian territory under various pretexts. Back in May, an Israeli strike against Damascus claimed the life of Mustafa Badreddine, a senior Hezbollah commander.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement, which fought off two Israeli wars in 2006 and 2008 at home, has been successfully helping Syria to defend itself in the face of terrorists and to prevent the spillover of the crisis into Lebanon.