Israel says intercepts rocket fired from Syria

JERUSALEM – Israel’s military said its air defense systems intercepted a rocket fired from Syria on Sunday, January 20, after Damascus accused Israel of carrying out air raids.

“A short while ago, a rocket was fired at the northern Golan Heights and was intercepted by the ‘Iron Dome’ aerial defense system,” an Israeli military statement said.

A military spokeswoman told AFP the rocket was fired from Syria. No further details were immediately provided.

Syrian state news agency SANA, quoting a military source, said Syrian air defenses earlier Sunday responded to Israeli air raids in the south of the country.

Air defense systems “prevented Israeli air strikes from achieving their objectives in the south” of Syria, the report said without giving further details.

The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, Rami Abdel Rahman, said the region targeted was south of Damascus near the Kisweh area.

“Warehouses containing weapons for Syrian regime ally Hezbollah and Iranian fighters are located in that area,” Abdel Rahman said.

But the head of the Observatory, which is based in Britain and relies on a network of sources inside Syria, said it was not clear if these stores were hit in the strikes.

Israel has pledged to stop its main enemy Iran from entrenching itself militarily in neighboring 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. – Rappler.com