Israel says carrying out strikes on Iranian targets in Syria
21 January, 2019
Israel's military said it was carrying out strikes on Iranian targets in Syria early Monday after it intercepted a rocket fired from Syrian territory hours earlier.
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. 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.
Israel rarely publicly confirms its strikes in Syria. 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, Syrian state news agency 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."