Israeli airstrike on Damascus countryside kills four soldiers, injures three others

Syria’s official news agency SANA, citing a military source, reported that Israeli aircraft fired several missiles from the direction of the northeastern Israeli city of Tiberias, which lies on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, at areas in the vicinity of Damascus at 0:41 a.m. local time on Wednesday (2141 GMT Wednesday).

Most of the projectiles were intercepted and destroyed before hitting any of their targets, it added.

The source said four soldiers had lost their lives while three others were wounded. The airstrike also caused some material damage.

Back on April 14, Israeli missiles were intercepted by the Syrian air defense systems over the western countryside of Damascus.

An unnamed military source said at the time that the missiles were reportedly fired from the direction of Syria’s Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

A similar attack was carried out by Israel on April 9 against the northwestern Syrian city of Masyaf, which only caused material losses at the targeted area.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups that are wreaking havoc in the country.

Israel frequently targets military positions inside Syria, especially those of the resistance movement Hezbollah which has played a key role in helping the Syrian army in its fight against the foreign-backed terrorists.

The Zionist regime mostly keeps quiet about its attacks on Syrian territories which many view as knee-jerk reaction to Syrian government’s increasing success in confronting terrorism.

Israel has been a main supporter of terrorist groups that have opposed the government of President Bashar al-Assad since foreign-backed militancy erupted in Syria nine years ago.

Also on Tuesday, an Israeli military drone crashed in the Syrian territory.

The Israeli military said the incident was being investigated, claiming that no sensitive information was lost due to the crash and there was no risk of intelligence being taken from the device.

The military did not specify the drone model or the circumstances that led to its crash.

While it remains unclear what exactly caused the unmanned aerial vehicle to fall, similar past incidents have been reported by the Israeli military as the result of technical mishaps.

Back in September last year, a similar event occurred when another drone which belonged to the Israeli military fell in the Syrian territory after it purportedly suffered a technical malfunction.