Syrian state media say Israeli jets have fired two missiles from Lebanese airspace which struck outside Damascus.

A military source told the Sana news agency that the missiles landed in the Sabboura area but caused no casualties.

The source did not say if anything was hit, but the highway from Lebanon to Damascus runs through the town.

The Israeli military has not commented. It is believed to have bombed weapons shipments intended for Lebanon's Hezbollah movement in the past.

Hezbollah, which fought a month-long war with Israel in 2006, has sent thousands of fighters to Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad's forces in the country's civil war.

Profile: Lebanon's Hezbollah movement

The Syrian military source said Wednesday's missile strikes were "an attempt to distract attention" from the Syrian army's "successes" and a "bid to raise the morale of the collapsing terrorist gangs", an apparent reference to recent rebel losses in Aleppo.

The pro-government Al-Masdar News website reported that the Israeli warplanes had fired Popeye missiles at Sabboura, 8km (5 miles) north-west of Damascus

Image copyright AFP Image caption The Israeli military declined to confirm or deny the reported air strikes

"The overnight explosions were so loud they could be heard by an Al-Masdar News field correspondent in downtown Damascus," it added.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, and social media users also reported hearing loud explosions overnight.

Al-Masdar said it was likely the strikes targeted a Hezbollah location or a senior member of the Shia Islamist movement.

The London-based Arabic news website, Rai al-Youm, meanwhile cited sources as saying that the first target was an arms depot belonging to the 38th Brigade of the Syrian army's 4th Division.

The second target was a group of vehicles believed to be part of a Hezbollah weapons convoy, the sources added, stressing that no leaders were targeted.

The Israeli military declined to confirm or deny the reports.

The reported strikes come days after the Israeli military said its aircraft had targeted and killed four militants linked to so-called Islamic State in the Syrian-controlled Golan Heights, after they opened fire on a patrol on Israeli-occupied territory.</s>JERUSALEM () — Israel’s Air Force reportedly attacked a Syrian army position and a Hezbollah weapons convoy, according to reports originating in Arab media.

The reported attacks took place early Wednesday morning along the highway connecting Damascus and Beirut, and required the military airplanes to fly in Lebanese airspace.

SANA, the official news agency of the regime of President Bashar Assad, reported Wednesday in an article headlined “Israeli enemy’s air force fires two rockets on Damascus western countryside,” that there were no casualties in the attack, which it called “an attempt to divert attention from the successes achieved by the Syrian Arab army.”

The article did not mention the alleged attack on the Hezbollah weapons convoy.

The article cited an unnamed source as saying that the attacks are “a ‘desperate attempt’ by the Israeli occupation entity to raise the deteriorating morals of the Takfiri terrorist gangs after the heavy losses they have suffered in many areas, especially in the western countryside of Damascus.”

The Israel Defense Forces, as is its standard practice, has neither confirmed nor denied the reports, saying that it does not respond to foreign media reports.

The alleged attack comes three days after the Israeli Air Force struck an Islamic State-affiliated group in Syria, killing four of its members, hours after the group fired on Israeli soldiers across the border in the Golan Heights.

It was reportedly the first clash between Israel and the Islamic State. Most mortars and gunfire on Israel from Syria have been accidental spillover from the internal fighting. The IDF has responded to those with return fire.

The tension between Syria and Israel comes amid renewed fighting in the area between rebel forces and the army of Syrian President Bashar Assad in a more than five-year civil war.</s>DAMASCUS, Syria — Israeli jets fired two missiles from Lebanese airspace toward the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus early Wednesday, the official Syrian news agency said, in a strike on an unknown target that caused loud explosions.

The news agency, SANA, said the missiles struck the Sabboura area, west of Damascus, and did not cause any casualties. Citing an unnamed military source, SANA did not specify what the missiles struck. Damascus residents reported on social media hearing loud blasts around 2 a.m.

The Israeli military declined to comment, but Israel is widely believed to have carried out a number of airstrikes in Syria in the past few years that have targeted advanced weapons systems, including Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles and Iranian-made missiles. The arms are believed to be destined for the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah militant group, a close ally of the Syrian government and a fierce enemy of Israel.

The strikes come days after Israeli aircraft hit a machine gun-mounted vehicle inside Syria, killing four Islamic State-affiliated militants inside after they opened fire on a military patrol on the Israeli-controlled side of the Golan Heights. The violence appeared to be a rare case of an intentional shooting ambush by Islamic militants targeting Israeli troops.

Israel has been largely unaffected by the Syrian civil war raging next door, suffering only sporadic incidents of spillover fire over the frontier that Israel has generally dismissed as tactical errors of the Assad regime. Israel has responded to these cases lightly, with limited reprisals on Syrian positions in response to the errant fire.</s>Israeli fighter jets fired missiles on a government-held town west of Damascus according to Syrian state media.



Some reports indicate that four missiles had hit Hezbollah militia targets near Al-Saboorah, a government-controlled suburb of Syria’s capital. No casualties were reported, though there have been conflicting reports over the initial target of the raid.

According to SANA news agency, a Syrian military source said, “Israeli planes launched the airstrike from Lebanese airspace at dawn to “divert attention away from the successes of the Syrian Arab Army”

Al-Masdar news agency reported earlier that the Israeli Air Force had launched four air-to-surface Popeye missiles targeting Hezbollah positions. The jets themselves are not believed to have entered Syrian airspace.

There have been conflicting reports over the initial target of the raid with speculations swirling over what targets were actually hit during the sorties.

Lebanomn’s Mulhak News reported citing own sources that Syria’s army ammunition depot was destroyed in one of the raids, while in the other a number of cars left near to the Damascus-Beirut Highway were damaged. The outlet stated that no senior security or political commanders have been killed in the attack.

Al-Masdar News also cited unconfirmed reports indicating that one of the missiles struck a car repair shop which was used by Hezbollah. No casualties have resulted from the sortie as mechanics were not at the workplace at night hours, it reported.

Other reports indicate that Israeli forces targeted a Hezbollah arms convoy near Damascus.

However, Damascus Now, a popular FB page dedicated to local Syrian news, said the strike targeted army positions.

“At approximately 1:20 a.m. four explosions were heard in the vicinity of Damascus, which sources said were the result of an [Israeli airstrike] against a Syrian army position near the Beirut highway,” NOW’s English news cited Damascus Now as saying on its FB page.

While the circumstances of the attack are still unclear, locals have reported hearing multiple loud explosions after midnight on Wednesday.

Based on the assumption that the targeted area lies close to the Damascus-Beirut Highway, the major road used by Hezbollah, Al-Masdar News suggested the ultimate purpose of the mission was to kill one of the Shiite militia senior officials.

This is the second cross-border attack by Israel into the Syrian territory in four days. On Sunday, it carried out an airstrike on “an abandoned military facility” in the south of the Syrian Golan Heights which served as a location for Islamic State militants, according to the IDF spokesman. The attack was carried out in retaliation after IDF patrol was shelled by small arms and mortar fire across the border on the Israeli part of the Golan Hights by an IS-linked Shuhada al-Yarmouk group, Israeli media reported.</s>Israel has begun a bombing campaign in Syria, carrying out multiple air strikes in the country under the guise of targeting Hezbollah.

According to Arab news outlets, Israeli aircraft used Lebanese airspace in order to hit a weapons cache and a convoy of military vehicles belonging to Hezbollah and the Syrian army.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has neither confirmed nor denied the attacks in line with the position Israel always takes when it comes to sensitive operations.

The aerial assault is believed to have taken place during the night of 29-30 November. According to the London-based Rai al-Youm newspaper, the Israeli warplanes hit the convoy on the Damascus-Beirut highway.

Both the weapons facility and the convoy were under the command of the Shia militant group Hezbollah, which has long been fighting on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. At least four huge explosions were reported near the Syrian capital during the strikes. There is still no word on any casualties.

In the past, several air strikes in Syria and at multiple locations bordering Israel were alleged to have been carried out by Israeli forces though the Israeli government hardly confirms any of these.

The current attack comes close on the heels of the IDF confirming it targeted an Islamic State (Isis)-held position near the Syrian border. The IDF said on 28 November, that the air strike was a response to the attack on Israeli soldiers in the region. Israeli forces “will not hesitate to act against terror groups that operate against the State of Israel”, the IDF warned in a statement.</s>Israeli aircraft have reportedly hit targets close to Damascus, in the country’s second strike in Syria this week.

Various Arab media outlets reported that Israeli fighter jets bombed a Hizbullah-bound weapons convoy, as well as a Syrian army weapons storage facility near the Syrian capital, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, causing loud explosions that were heard by Damascus residents.

Israel never confirms or denies reports of attacks in the Damascus area but Syria’s state-run Sana news agency described the Israeli strike as an attempt to “divert attention from the successes achieved by the Syrian army and to raise the deteriorating morale of the terrorist gangs”, an apparent reference to recent rebel losses in Aleppo.

Local media reported that the missiles were launched from Lebanese airspace and caused no casualties. The missiles hit the al-Sabboura area to the west of the capital, Damascus, targeting a base of the Syrian army’s 4th division and a Hizbullah weapons convoy on the main Damascus-Beirut highway.

The attack follows an incident on Sunday when Israeli aircraft targeted and killed four fighters linked to an Islamic State militia on the Syrian Golan Heights after they reportedly opened fire at troops on the Israeli side of the border.

Since the start of the Syrian civil war in March 2011, a number of airstrikes in Syria or close to the border with Lebanon have been attributed to Israel.

However, with Russian jets and anti-aircraft units now operating in Syria, Israel no longer enjoys control of the skies and Jerusalem and Moscow have set up a very close co-ordination mechanism to avoid aerial confrontation. It is almost certain that the Russians knew in advance on Wednesday that Israel planned to operate in the area.

Reserve Maj Gen Giora Eiland, the former head of Israel’s National Security Council, said Israel acts militarily when its red lines are crossed.

“We attack only in one of two cases: if we are fired on in our territory as happened in the Golan Heights a few days ago, or if there are weapons shipments, what are known as game-changing weapons that are being transferred to Hizbullah. The second principle is that we attack very proportionately, not broadly, and we try not to hit people. The third thing is that we don’t announce anything, because the more that you announce, the more you force the other side to respond.”

Hizbullah, which fought a month-long war with Israel in 2006, has thousands of fighters in Syria, providing military aid to the Assad regime and Iranian forces. In April, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, in a rare moment of candour, confirmed that Israel had carried out dozens of strikes against Hizbullah to prevent the group from obtaining advanced weapons, such as advanced anti-aircraft systems, chemical weapons or ground-to-sea missiles.</s>BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian army said Israeli jets fired two missiles on an area west of the capital of Damascus on Wednesday morning, causing no casualties in an attack mounted from Lebanese air space.

A Syrian military source said Israeli planes launched the air strike at dawn, and the missiles fell on the Saboura area.

The attack was an attempt to "divert attention away from the successes of the Syrian Arab Army", SANA said, quoting a military source. There was no immediate comment from Israel.</s>A UN officer monitors the Israel-Syria border in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, on November 27, 2016 (AFP Photo/Jalaa Marey)

Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel's air force targeted gunmen linked to the Islamic State group in Syria overnight, the army said Monday, after they fired on an Israeli soldier in the occupied Golan Heights.

"Overnight the (Israeli air force) targeted an abandoned UN building that has been used by the Islamic State as an operations centre along the border in the southern Syrian Golan Heights," an army statement read.

It said the building was the "base for yesterday's attack," which was believed to be the first such direct assault by jihadists on Israeli soldiers in the Golan Heights since Syria's civil war began in 2011.

The army said Israeli soldiers were targeted Sunday with machinegun fire and mortars and shot back. The air force then bombed the vehicle carrying the gunmen, identified as members of the Yarmouk Martyrs' Brigade, a Syrian rebel group that pledged allegiance to IS.

Four of the militants were killed, with no Israeli soldiers injured.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the soldiers who "successfully repelled an attempted attack."

"Our forces are prepared on our northern border, and we won't let (IS) elements or other hostile elements use the cover of the war in Syria to establish themselves next to our borders," he said in remarks relayed by his office.

Israel seized 1,200 square kilometres (460 square miles) of the Golan from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.

The two countries are still technically at war, though the border had remained largely quiet for decades until 2011.

Since then regular stray missiles have landed in Israeli border areas, but rebel groups and Syrian government forces have largely avoided directly targeting Israeli forces.

Israel attacks Syrian military targets when fire, even unintentional, spills over the demarcation line.</s>(CNN) Thousands of people are fleeing the eastern, rebel-controlled part of Aleppo. Pro-regime forces have breached the once stable front lines in this battered city. The end is near.

It's the beginning of the end of the uprising against the regime of Bashar al-Assad that began March 15, 2011, in the opening phases of what once was optimistically called the Arab Spring. It is also, perhaps, the final death knell for that string of revolts or revolutions or uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Bahrain and Yemen, which have ended in catastrophe (with the possible exception of Tunisia).

I reported from Aleppo in August 2012 , when it appeared the Syrian uprising had a chance to succeed. Aleppo, Syria's largest city and its industrial powerhouse, had initially stayed out of the rebellion. But in the summer of 2012 it rose up against the regime, and when it joined the revolt it seemed, back then, only a matter of time before the regime would come tumbling down.

In the already severely battered neighborhood of Salahadin, a masked rebel fighter told me he was confident victory was near. "We will win, because we have iman -- faith -- we have faith," he told me. "We believe in God. They, the regime, don't believe in God."

But in the time I spent in Aleppo, there were also hints already that the opposition was divided, and already some of the factions showed signs of extremism.

I recall sitting on the curb in front of a police station in the rebel-controlled neighborhood of Sukkari when we heard a gunshot. The rebels inside, who were part of the Tawhid faction, had just executed someone accused of being a spy.

Moments later a young man was brought outside, blindfolded, his hands tied behind his back, led by two masked gunmen.

His friend, who was sitting next to me on the curb, explained the young man, 16 years old, had been arrested and interrogated because rebel fighters had found the phone numbers of girls on his mobile phone. The faction, which now controlled his neighborhood, was taking him home to his parents, who would be forced to pay a $75 fine.

Later that afternoon, we watched as a man and woman, her face hidden by a veil, left the neighborhood pushing a baby carriage full of bundles.

I asked the woman where they were going.

"We're leaving. These people are no better than the regime. In fact, they're worse," she shot back, without stopping.

Five years later, and the tide has decisively turned. Russia came to Assad's rescue in September 2015. With massive Russian air power against them, and Assad getting help from Iran and Hezbollah, the rebels are losing ground everywhere.

The opposition, always a hodgepodge of often mutually hostile groups united only by their enmity of the regime, hold only scattered and shrinking pockets of territory around Damascus, Homs, Daraa and Aleppo, with the only sizable area still under their control in Idlib province. Turkey supports factions of the Free Syrian Army along Syria's northern border, and the United States backs the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeast, but both those groups are focused on fighting ISIS, not the regime.

The Obama administration, which drew red lines in Syria, which demanded the ouster of Assad, which called for democracy and human rights in Syria, in the end could do little to change the course of events. The fight against ISIS took precedence over all else.

In those areas where the government re-establishes control, the future for former opponents is bleak. The dreaded Mukhabarat, or secret police, is almost certain to hunt down and punish those who took up arms against Assad.

Middle Eastern dictators are not known for their magnanimity, and Syria is no exception.

If you want to know how Assad is likely to deal with his defeated opponents, just look at the case of the February 1982 Hama uprising. That year, members of the Muslim Brotherhood tried to seize the central Syrian city from the regime of Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father. Regime forces, led by Bashar's uncle, Rifaat, surrounded Hama and pummeled it for weeks with tank and artillery fire, killing at least 10,000. Afterward, they went in, slaughtering thousands more, rebels and civilians alike.

I visited Hama repeatedly in the early 1990s: It was an eerie place crawling with informers where, unlike elsewhere in Syria, people were hesitant to speak with outsiders. The regime had bulldozed the old city to the ground, and built atop it a fancy hotel and parks.

When eastern Aleppo falls, it's only a matter of time before the remaining pockets of resistance will fall, either by fire or capitulation. And the end of the uprising will have arrived.
Allegedly Israeli fighter jets strike a suspected Hezbollah weapons convoy near Damascus, Syria.