Syrian state media reported air defences shot down “hostile targets” on Thursday amid conflicting reports an Israeli jet had been downed.
Russia’s RIA news agency, citing a Syrian security source, had reported air defences had shot down an Israeli war plane and four missiles, but the same source later denied this, and Israel’s military said the report was “bogus”.
Syrian state media said the incident took place over the town of Kiswah, south of the capital Damascus, and “were able to foil its goals” despite the “intensity of the aggression”.
The area where the incident is said to have occurred is where Lebanon’s Hizbullah, a group backed by Iran, has its communications and logistics hub for southern Syria near the Israeli border, according to intelligence sources.
Among the targets struck were two Syrian army brigades where Lebanon’s Hizbullah group is embedded alongside a rocket depot close to its bases near the border with Lebanon, a Syrian army defector said.
Unlike previous occasions, the Syrian authorities did not blame Israel.
Israel is concerned that Iran’s growing presence in Syria poses a threat to its own security and has struck dozens of Iranian and Iran-backed positions in Syria during the country’s seven-year conflict.
The Israel Defence Forces said in a statement on Twitter: “In the course of Syrian ground-to-air missile fire, [Israel’s] air defences sighted a single trajectory toward an open area of the Golan Heights.
“At this stage it remains unclear whether there was indeed an impact in our territory. Our forces are scouring the area. Furthermore, the report about a strike on an Israeli aircraft or an Israeli aerial target are bogus,” said the statement.
A Syrian opposition figure said the proximity of the area to the Syrian Golan Heights made it a hub for the recruitment of Iran-backed militias and their deployment across the strategic border area with Israel.
“Israel has targeted this area because the Syrian army barracks there have become a recruiting ground for Hizbullah and their militias to deploy in Quneitra,” Said Seif told Reuters.
Iran is a key ally of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and supports a number of militias that have fought alongside the Syrian army and its allies.
Tehran has in recent months expanded its military presence in southern Syria after insurgents were driven out, with Hizbullah, by far the biggest of the Iranian-backed militias expanding its foothold there, according to regional security sources. – Reuters