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According to Syria’s national news agency, a Syrian soldier was killed in a missile attack by Israel in southern Syria (SANA).
“The Israeli launched an air raid with numerous missiles in the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan and targeting several points in the south at around 12:50 a.m. (23:50 a.m. GMT Wednesday),” a military source told SANA on Thursday.
According to the source, Syrian air defences were able to “shoot down most of the missiles,” adding that “the aggression resulted in the loss of a soldier and material damage.”
The Israeli military has made no statement in response to the report.
Since the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside territories controlled by President Bashar al-regime, Assad’s but it seldom admits or discusses these operations.
Syria’s military said earlier this month that Israeli fighter planes fired missiles at the port of Latakia, destroying containers but causing no deaths. The port is an important facility for bringing much of Syria’s imports into the war-torn country.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Israeli missile attacks in the west of Homs province killed five civilians in late November.
Five pro-Iranian militiamen were killed near Damascus in two separate Israeli operations in October, while nine pro-government militants were killed near the T4 airbase east of Palmyra in central Syria, according to the UK-based monitoring group.
Israel has admitted that it targets Iranian-backed militias’ strongholds, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has fighters stationed in Syria to support al-forces. Assad’s
It claims to target arms shipments destined for militias, and declares Iran’s presence on its northern border a red line.
Since 2011, when the tragedy in Syria began with the ruthless crackdown of peaceful protests, hundreds of thousands of people have died.