Syria says 4 soldiers were killed and 3 wounded in an Israeli attack near Damascus

Syrian state media said that four Syrian soldiers were killed and three wounded in an Israeli raid at dawn on Wednesday near the capital, Damascus.

This is the third alleged Israeli attack in Syria this month.

The state radio said that the Syrian air defenses responded to the Israeli attack. The Syrian news agency, SANA, said that our air defenses repelled an Israeli aggression on the outskirts of Damascus.

Official Syrian media quoted an unidentified Syrian military official as saying that surface-to-surface missiles were fired from northern Israel at military sites near Damascus.

The official claimed that most of the Israeli missiles were shot down and that the Syrian army was still looking into the “results of the aggression.”

The Syrian military claims to have shot down incoming missiles after nearly every alleged Israeli raid, which Israeli military officials and civil defense analysts have largely dismissed as an empty boast.

SANA has released a video that purports to show an air defense missile shining in the night sky.

In a subsequent statement, the radio said four soldiers were killed, three wounded, and “some material losses” were caused.

Syria reported two more Israeli attacks near Damascus earlier this month, including a rare daytime airstrike.

After the alleged daytime attack, local media reported explosions near the town of Masyaf, which is believed to be used as a base for Iranian forces and pro-Iranian militias, and has been repeatedly targeted in recent years in attacks attributed to Israel.

In early March, Israeli strikes near Damascus killed two Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers. The Revolutionary Guards vowed to avenge their deaths and then launched strikes on what they claimed was an Israeli “strategic center” in the autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq.

As a rule, the Israeli military does not comment on specific strikes in Syria, but has acknowledged carrying out hundreds of raids against Iranian-backed groups trying to gain a foothold in the country. It says it is also attacking arms shipments believed to be destined for these groups.

Israeli strikes in Syrian airspace, which is largely controlled by Russia, have continued even since Moscow began its invasion of Ukraine.

Israel found itself at odds with Russia as it did Ukraine has increasingly supported. However, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has avoided directly criticizing Russia, seeking to preserve Israel’s freedom of movement in the skies over Syria.

And, separately, an Israeli military drone crashed in Syria Tuesday. The Israeli military said the incident was under investigation. The military said no sensitive information was lost due to the crash and there was no danger of intelligence being taken from the device.

Agencies contributed to this report.