A crane lowers Iron Dome anti-missile system's launch tubes at Mount Hermon in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights near the Israel-Syria border on Monday (Reuters photo)

BEIRUT/OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel struck in Syria early on Monday, the latest salvo in its increasingly open assault on Iran's presence there, shaking the night sky over Damascus with an hour of loud explosions in a second consecutive night of military action.

Damascus did not say what damage or casualties resulted from the strikes. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said 11 people were killed. Syria's ally Russia said four Syrian soldiers had died and six were wounded.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the air raid had mostly targeted Iranian forces, but also hit Syrians helping them. "We will strike at anyone who tries to harm us," he said.

The threat of direct confrontation between arch-enemies Israel and Iran has long simmered in Syria, where the Iranian military built a presence early in the nearly eight year civil war to help President Bashar Assad's government.

Israel, regarding Iran as its biggest threat, has repeatedly attacked Iranian targets in Syria and those of allied militia, including Lebanon's Hizbollah.

With an election approaching, Israel's government has begun discussing its strikes more openly, and has also taken a tougher stance towards Hizbollah on the border with Lebanon. It said a rocket attack on Sunday was Iran's work.

The Israeli shift comes a month after US President Donald Trump unexpectedly announced a sudden plan to pull the 2,000 US troops from Syria, a move long sought by Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies. Trump's decision shocked American allies in the region and was opposed by top US officials including Defence Secretary Jim Mattis who quit in response.

The Israeli military said its fighter jets had attacked Iranian “Quds Force” targets early on Monday, including munition stores, a position in the Damascus International Airport, an intelligence site and a military training camp. Its jets then targeted Syrian defence batteries after coming under fire.

It followed a previous night of cross-border fire, which Israel said began when Iranian troops fired an Iranian-made surface-to-surface missile from an area near Damascus at a ski resort in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Syria said it was Israel that had attacked and its air defences had repelled the assault. Syria had endured “intense attack through consecutive waves of guided missiles”, but had destroyed most “hostile targets”, state media quoted a military source as saying.

The Russian defence ministry said Syrian air defences, supplied by Russia, had destroyed more than 30 cruise missiles and guided bombs, according to RIA news agency.

In Tehran, air force chief Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh said Iran was “fully ready and impatient to confront the Zionist regime and eliminate it from the earth”, according to the Young Journalist Club, a website supervised by state television.

Assad has said Iranian forces are welcome to stay in Syria after years of military victories that have brought most of the country back under his control. Just two big enclaves are still outside Assad’s grip, including the area Trump plans to exit.

Netanyahu, who is hoping to win a fifth term in the April 9 election, last week told his cabinet Israel has carried out “hundreds” of attacks over recent years.

“We have a permanent policy, to strike at the Iranian entrenchment in Syria and hurt whoever tries to hurt us,” he said on Sunday.

The Israeli forces distributed footage of what it said were missiles hitting the Syrian defence batteries, as well as satellite images showing the location of the alleged Iranian targets. Syrian state media showed footage of explosions.

In a highly publicised operation last month, the Israeli military uncovered and destroyed cross-border tunnels from Lebanon it said were dug by Hizbollah to launch future attacks.

Israel last fought a war with Hizbollah, on Lebanese soil, in 2006. It fears Hizbollah has used its own role fighting alongside Iran and Assad in Syria to bolster its military capabilities, including an arsenal of rockets aimed at Israel.

Tensions have also risen with Israel’s construction of a frontier barrier that Lebanon says passes through its territory.

Washington has sought to reassure allies it still aims to eject Iran from Syria despite pulling its own troops out. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who visited the region this month, has vowed to expel “every last Iranian boot” from Syria.

Israel has sought reassurances from Moscow that Iranian forces in Syria would not be a threat. Israeli forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said the missile fired at the ski resort was launched from “an area we were promised the Iranians would not be present in”.</s>JERUSALEM — In an extraordinary statement, the Israeli military confirmed early Monday that it attacked Iranian military targets in Syria.

The military said the targets included munition storage facilities, an intelligence site and a military training camp.

The strikes were in response to a surface-to-surface rocket that Iranian forces fired toward Israel on Sunday that was intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system over a ski resort in the Golan Heights. That followed a rare Israeli daylight air raid near the Damascus International Airport.

"We have started striking Iranian Quds targets in Syrian territory," the military statement said. "We warn the Syrian Armed Forces against attempting to harm Israeli forces or territory."

Until now Israel has largely refrained from public admissions of its covert military operations in neighboring Syria, in order to avoid large-scale involvement in the eight-year civil war.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday's strikes lasted for nearly an hour and were the most intense Israeli attacks since May. It said 11 were killed in the strikes. The Russian military said four Syrian troops were among those killed. There were no further details on the casualties or their nationalities.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said the Iranian missile attack that prompted the strong Israeli response was "premeditated." Iranian forces in Syria fired the mid-range surface-to-surface missile toward Israel from the Damascus area — a missile that had been smuggled into Syria specifically for that purpose, he said. Conricus declined to further identify the type of missile, but said it hadn't been used in any of the internal fighting of the civil war and had "no business" being in Syria.

Israel only recently acknowledged carrying out hundreds of strikes in Syria in recent years. It previously typically offered only general warnings against allowing Iran to establish a military foothold in Syria and refrained from commenting directly for fear of triggering a reaction and being drawn into the deadly fighting.

Monday's announcement went a step further, reporting the strikes in real time and detailing the targets.

Conricus would not confirm whether the measures marked an official abandonment of the policy of ambiguity, merely saying that it was a "retaliatory strike against active aggression by Iran."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently confirmed that Israel has struck hundreds of targets in Syria linked to Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group, including a weapons facility two weeks ago. Iran and Hezbollah are allied with the Syrian government in the civil war.

Two hours after the reports that Israel's Iron Dome intercepted a rocket fired toward the Golan Heights, Netanyahu said in a statement: "We have a defined policy: to harm Iranian entrenchment in Syria and to harm anyone who tries to harm us."</s>The Israeli military has confirmed it attacked Iranian military targets in Syria, hours after carrying out a rare daylight air raid near the Damascus International Airport.

The statement was issued hours after Israeli missile defences intercepted an incoming missile over the Golan Heights in the wake of the airport raid.

“We have started striking Iranian Quds targets in Syrian territory,” the military statement said. “We warn the Syrian Armed Forces against attempting to harm Israeli forces or territory.”

Until now Israel has largely refrained from public admissions of its covert military operations in neighbouring Syria, in order to avoid large-scale involvement in the eight-year civil war. Eleven people were said to have been killed (SANA/AP)

The Syrian military said Israel carried out intensive airstrikes with successive waves of guided missiles shortly after 1am local time (11pm GMT), but added that Syrian air defences destroyed most of the missiles before they reached their targets.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday’s strikes lasted for nearly an hour and were the most intense Israeli attacks since May. It said 11 people were killed in the strikes.

The Russian military said four Syrian troops were among those killed.

On Sunday, Syrian state media said air defences repelled an Israeli air raid near the international airport south of Damascus.

State TV said Syria’s air defences “prevented” the attack from achieving its goals. It said Israel targeted six missiles on an area near Damascus International Airport, of which five were shot down and one diverted to nearby empty farmland.

Residents of the capital said they heard five explosions early on Sunday afternoon, apparently the sound of air defences firing into the air. The Israeli military said the missile strike which prompted the response was ‘pre-meditated’ (SANA/AP)

The Israeli military had initially declined to comment on the airstrike, though it said a rocket fired at the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights was intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defence system.

Israeli warplanes have used Lebanon’s airspace recently to strike deep inside Syria, including attacking a warehouse near Damascus International Airport earlier this month, according to Syrian state media.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently confirmed that Israel has struck hundreds of targets in Syria linked to Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group, including a weapons facility two weeks ago.

Iran and Hezbollah are allied with the Syrian government in the civil war.

Two hours after the reports that Israel’s Iron Dome intercepted a rocket fired toward the Golan Heights, Mr Netanyahu, who currently is on a visit to Chad, said in a statement: “We have a defined policy: to harm Iranian entrenchment in Syria and to harm anyone who tries to harm us.”

Earlier on Sunday, a roadside bomb went off in the south of Damascus without causing casualties, state media reported.

The SANA news agency said the blast targeted a military checkpoint on a main road during rush hour.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which closely monitors Syria’s war, said the bomb targeted the vehicle of a “security personality” that it did not identify.

The Observatory’s chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said it was unclear whether the individual was killed or wounded. “It was not a random act,” he added.

Attacks have been rare in Damascus since Syrian government forces captured the last rebel-held neighbourhoods and suburbs of the capital last year.

Bombings have left hundreds dead over the course of the nearly eight-year civil war.</s>Israel's military said it carried out strikes on Iranian targets in Syria early Monday after it intercepted a rocket fired from Syrian territory hours before.

It said in a statement it was "currently striking" the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force in Syria and warned Syria's military against "attempting to harm Israeli territory or forces".

It provided no further details on the raids.

Israel's military said on Sunday its air defence systems intercepted a rocket fired from Syria, after Damascus accused Israel of carrying out air raids in the country's south.

As Israel announced its strikes early Monday, Syrian state news agency SANA said its country's air-defence systems had targeted "enemy" fire.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported Israeli missile strikes in the area of the Damascus airport and areas around the capital.

It said the missiles hit apparent Iranian and Hezbollah arms depots.

Israel has pledged to stop its main enemy Iran from entrenching itself militarily in neighbouring Syria.

It has carried out hundreds of air strikes there against what it says are Iranian military targets and advanced arms deliveries to Tehran-backed Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia.

Its fighter planes have faced anti-aircraft fire during such raids, but Israeli media reported that Sunday's response included a surface-to-surface missile from Syria.

Israel's military said only that it had intercepted a rocket fired at the northern Golan Heights.

On Sunday, SANA quoted a military source saying Syria's air defences went into action after Israel earlier in the day launched air strikes on the south of the country.

The Russian army said Syrian air defences destroyed seven Israeli projectiles, after four of the Jewish state's F-16 military planes "fired rockets into Syrian territory".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters on Sunday that "we have a permanent policy: to strike at the Iranian entrenchment in Syria and hurt whoever tries to hurt us."

Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have been speaking more openly about the Syria strikes in recent days, with some analysts saying the premier seems to want to further burnish his security credentials ahead of April 9 elections.

But Israel also risks an escalation with Syria and Iran, as well as possibly further angering Russia.

Military coordination between Israel and Russia took a hit after a friendly fire incident in September that led to a Russian plane being downed by Syrian air defences during an Israeli strike.

The incident angered Russia and complicated Israel's operations in Syria, particularly after Moscow's delivery of the advanced S-300 air defence system there in response.

Israel has sought to keep its coordination with Russia on track and maintain its ability to strike in Syria.

On Thursday, Israeli military officials concluded a series of talks with their Russian counterparts aimed at improving coordination in the war-torn country.

Both Russia and Iran are backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in his country's civil war.</s>OCCUPIED AL-QUDS: Israel struck what it said were Iranian targets in Syria early on Monday in response to missile fire it blamed on Iran, sparking concerns of an escalation after a monitor reported 11 fighters killed.

Israel announced the strikes against facilities it said belonged to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force as they were occurring, continuing its recent practice of speaking more openly about such raids.

It said the strikes were in response to a medium-range, surface-to-surface missile the Quds Force fired from Syria at the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Sunday, which Israeli air defences intercepted.

"We saw that as an unacceptable attack by the Iranian troops -- not proxies, not militias, not Syrian forces -- Iranian troops firing an Iranian-made missile from the vicinity of Damascus towards sovereign Israel," Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus told journalists.

Israel said targets included munitions stores, a site at Damascus International Airport that was allegedly the Quds Force’s main logistics hub in the country, an Iranian intelligence installation and an Iranian military training camp.

It said it also hit Syrian air defence batteries in response to dozens of missiles fired from them. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said at least 11 pro-regime fighters including two Syrians were killed.

Russia, which like Iran is a key backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s war, said the Israeli strikes killed four Syrian soldiers and wounded six, while damaging Damascus airport infrastructure.

The Observatory said air strikes and ground-to-ground missiles hit targets around the capital including near the Damascus airport, as well as near the Thaala military airport in Sweida province to the south of the capital. The targets included weapons depots belonging to the Lebanese movement Hizbullah and Iranian fighters, it added.</s>Jerusalem (CNN) Israel carried out a series of airstrikes early Monday against Iranian targets in Syria, the Israeli military said, in response to an Iranian missile fired at the Golan Heights, capping off a volatile 24 hours between the two regional enemies with the possibility of more fighting ahead.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) struck Iranian targets in and around Damascus, including the city's international airport, IDF Spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said. The overnight strikes targeted munitions depots, intelligence sites, a training camp and more, Conricus said.

The IDF also struck Iranian warehouses at the Damascus International Airport, Conricus said, noting that Israel observed secondary explosions, indicating that weapons had been hit.

Israel also attacked Syrian anti-aircraft batteries when those batteries fired dozens of missiles at Israeli aircraft carrying out the strikes, Conricus said. Israel relayed a message to Syria that the military was only targeting Iranian forces and warned Syria not to fire at Israeli jets.

The wide-ranging strikes were in response to a medium range surface-to-surface missile fired toward the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Sunday afternoon. The missile was made by Iran and launched by Iranian forces, Conricus said, adding that it's the first time a missile with such a payload has been fired by Iranian forces at Israel.

Read More</s>on Monday said it has started hitting Iranian targets in

The Defense Forces (IDF) says its operation is against the - an elite unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the reported.

It provided no details. But there are reports of strikes around the Syrian capital early on Monday.

Syrian media say air defences have repelled "an Israeli aerial attack". On Sunday, the IDF said it had intercepted a rocket over the

The IDF announced the start of its operation in a tweet early on Monday.

The UK-based for Human Rights (SOHR) says Israeli rockets were targeting "the vicinity of the capital Damascus".

The SOHR adds that Syria's air defences were firing their missiles to intercept them.

Witnesses in spoke of hearing loud explosions in the night sky.

But in May 2018, said it had struck almost all of Iran's military infrastructure there in its such biggest assault since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011.

Those strikes came after rockets were fired at Israeli military positions in the</s>(JERUSALEM) — In an extraordinary statement, the Israeli military confirmed early Monday that it attacked Iranian military targets in Syria, hours after carrying out a rare daylight air raid near the Damascus International Airport.

The statement was issued hours after Israeli missile defenses intercepted an incoming missile over the Golan Heights in the wake of the airport raid.

“We have started striking Iranian Quds targets in Syrian territory,” the military statement said. “We warn the Syrian Armed Forces against attempting to harm Israeli forces or territory.”

Until now Israel has largely refrained from public admissions of its covert military operations in neighboring Syria, in order to avoid large-scale involvement in the eight-year civil war.

The Syrian military said Israel carried out intensive airstrikes with successive waves of guided missiles shortly after 1 a.m., but added that Syrian air defenses destroyed most of the missiles before they reached their targets.

On Sunday, Syrian state media said air defenses repelled an Israeli air raid near the international airport south of Damascus. State TV said Syria’s air defenses “prevented” the attack from achieving its goals. It said Israel targeted six missiles on an area near Damascus International Airport, of which five were shot down and one diverted to nearby empty farmland.

Residents of the capital said they heard five explosions early Sunday afternoon, apparently the sound of air defenses firing into the air.

The Israeli military had initially declined to comment on the airstrike, though it said a rocket fired at the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights was intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defense system.

Israeli warplanes have used Lebanon’s airspace recently to strike deep inside Syria, including attacking a warehouse near Damascus International Airport earlier this month, according to Syrian state media.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently confirmed that Israel has struck hundreds of targets in Syria linked to Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group, including a weapons facility two weeks ago. Iran and Hezbollah are allied with the Syrian government in the civil war.

Two hours after the reports that Israel’s Iron Dome intercepted a rocket fired toward the Golan Heights, Netanyahu, who currently is on a visit to Chad, said in a statement: “We have a defined policy: to harm Iranian entrenchment in Syria and to harm anyone who tries to harm us.”

Earlier Sunday, a roadside bomb went off south of Damascus without causing casualties, state media reported. The SANA news agency said the blast targeted a military checkpoint on a main highway during rush hour.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which closely monitors Syria’s war, said the bomb targeted the vehicle of a “security personality” that it did not identify. The Observatory’s chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said it was unclear whether the individual was killed or wounded. “It was not a random act,” he added.

Attacks have been rare in Damascus since Syrian government forces captured the last rebel-held neighborhoods and suburbs of the capital last year. Bombings have left hundreds dead over the course of the nearly eight-year civil war.

In the northern Syrian town of Afrin, a blast aboard a bus killed at least three people.

The attack came on the anniversary of a Turkish military operation that evicted Kurdish fighters from the town and displaced tens of thousands of its residents. The town now is under the control of Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters.

The Observatory said three people were killed and nine wounded in the explosion. The Syrian Civil Defense, an opposition-linked group known as the White Helmets, said that the blast killed “martyrs” and that others were wounded and rushed to hospitals.</s>Israeli forces bombed targets belonging to Iran inside Syria early Monday morning, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement, as tensions on the northern border continued to skyrocket.

The IDF said at 1:30 a.m. it was “striking Iranian Quds targets in Syrian territory,” and warned Syrian forces not to intervene.

“The IDF warns the Syrian Armed Forces against attempting to harm Israeli territory or forces,” the army said in a statement.

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Syria’s state-run SANA news outlet claimed its air defenses had shot down a number of “hostile targets.”

Video posted online appeared to show at least one missile being intercepted.

It claimed the strikes had come from the direction of Lebanese airspace and said explosion were heard near Damascus.

The Quds Force is Iran’s expeditionary unit inside the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which Israel and others accuse of trying to gain a military foothold in Syria.

The attack came hours after Syria shot a missile at Israeli territory, in apparent response to a rare daylight attack on targets in and around Damascus widely attributed to Israel.

Israel’s air defenses managed to down the surface to surface missile before it reached Israeli airspace over the Golan Heights, according to the military.

Signaling fears of a fresh attack on Israel, the army announced it would shutter the Mount Hermon ski resort on Monday. On Sunday, the popular site had remained open despite the missile attack nearby.

The cross-border fire come less than a week after IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi took office.

The IDF announcement regarding the attack was nearly unprecedented, after years of maintaining a policy of strategic ambiguity regarding its air campaign against Iran gaining a military foothold in Syria.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials have seemingly become more open about Israel’s military efforts in Syria, even as the installation of more advanced Russian air defense systems and tensions with Moscow have complicated the campaign.

On Sunday Netanyahu appeared to confirm that Israel was behind the daylight strike while speaking to reporters in Chad.

“We have a permanent policy to hurt the Iranian entrenchment in Syria, and everyone who is trying to hurt us,” Netanyahu said. “This policy doesn’t change, whether I am in Israel or on a historic visit in Chad. It’s permanent.”

Local Syrian media said the targets of strike were in Damascus International Airport and in the town of al-Kiswah, south of the capital, both of which have been hit by Israeli attacks in the past. Last year, the Israeli military said bases near al-Kiswah were used by pro-Iranian militias. An Iranian weapons depot at the airport was targeted in an airstrike a week and a half ago, Israel said.

Israel typically refrains from commenting on individual airstrikes in Syria, but does generally acknowledge that it carries out raids against Iranian- and Hezbollah-linked targets in the country.

Israel in recent years has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria against targets linked to Iran, which alongside its proxies and Russia is fighting on behalf of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Israel has accused Iran of seeking to establish a military presence in Syria that could threaten Israeli security and attempting to transfer advanced weaponry to the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.</s>The Latest: Israeli PM says Iranian sites in Syria 'pounded'

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Latest on Israeli airstrikes in Syria (all times local):

Israel's prime minister says the country's military "pounded" Iranian targets in Syria in response to a missile launch against Israel.

Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel won't "allow such acts of aggression to go unanswered." He spoke at a dedicating ceremony for a new Israel airport.

Netanyahu vowed that "whoever tries to harm us, we will harm them. Whoever threatens to destroy us, will bear the full responsibility."

It was Netanyahu's first acknowledgement of Israel's most severe strike in Syria in nearly a year. The Israeli military says the Iranian targets that its jets struck in Syria included munition storage facilities, an intelligence site and a military training camp.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 11 were killed in the strikes.

The chief of Iranian Air Force says his forces are "impatient and ready" to fight against Israel in order to destroy the Jewish state, remarks that came just hours after Israeli jets struck a series of Iranian military targets in Syria.

A news website affiliated with Iran's state television, YJC.ir, quoted Gen. Aziz Nassirzadeh as saying that the Air Force's "young generation are impatient and ready for a fight against the Zionist regime to wipe it off the Earth."

Nassirzadeh spoke during a visit to the Air Force's academy after pre-dawn Israeli strikes on Monday.

Israel said the targets included munition storage facilities, an intelligence site and a military training camp and were in response to a rocket that Iranian forces fired toward Israel on Sunday.

The Israeli military says the Iranian targets that its jets struck in Syria include munition storage facilities, an intelligence site and a military training camp.

The unusual announcement appears to mark an end to Israel's years-long policy on ambiguity regarding activities in neighboring Syria. The military says the strikes come in response to a surface-to-surface rocket that Iranian forces fired toward Israel.

Israel recently acknowledged carrying out hundreds of strikes in Syria in recent years. It previously refrained from commenting for fear of triggering a reaction and being drawn into the deadly fighting in neighboring Syria's civil war.

Even so, Monday's announcement went a step further reporting the strike in real time and detailing the targets.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 11 were killed in the strikes.
The Israeli military says it had attacked Iranian military targets in Damascus including the city's international airport in response to a missile attack.