Off the wire
• FLASH: MACEDONIAN PROTESTERS STORM INTO PARLIAMENT AFTER ETHNIC ALBANIAN ELECTED AS SPEAKER: REPORT  • Former national security adviser Flynn warned in 2014 against receiving foreign money  • Sweden proposes harsher fines for firms hiring undocumented migrants  • Yemeni commander killed in missile attack by rebel Houthis  • Italian PM urges unity among EU countries during Brexit negotiations  • Urgent: Protesters rush into Macedonian Parliament after election of new Parliament speaker  • Tibet opens museum to commemorate 6th Dalai Lama  • Turnover drops at Kenya bourse on stifled foreign trading  • Togo celebrates independence anniversary with parade  • Lufthansa back in the black in Q1  
You are here: 　 Home

1st LD: Israel fires down incoming "target" from Syria

Xinhua, April 27, 2017 Adjust font size:

Israel's army said Thursday that its Patriot missile defense system intercepted an incoming object from Syria, reportedly a drone, while it was above the Israeli-held Golan Heights.

Local media reported that the projectile was a drone that crossed from Syria to Israel's aerial territory.

A military spokesperson confirmed in a statement that the Patriot system "intercepted a target above the Golan Heights" in northern Israel. The statement did not provide further details.

The incident came in the wake of an alleged Israeli airstrike in Syria during the night between Wednesday and Thursday.

The Syrian army confirmed that Israel missile fire targeted a Syrian military position near the international airport of the capital Damascus.

Israel fired several missiles from inside the annexed territory against one of the military positions southwest of the Damascus airport, causing fire and several explosions in the targeted site, which left damages, according to a report on the state TV that quoted Syrian army source.

Israel has not officially assumed responsibility for the attack, but local media reported that the strike targeted a weapon arsenal of Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shiite group that fights alongside President Bashar al-Assad army.

It was not the first Israeli strike, as the Israelis have ramped up their airstrikes on military positions in Syria recently, targeting military base in Qunaitera province in southern Syria this week, as well as a military position near the ancient city of Palmyra last month.

Israel seized the Golan Heights during the 1967 war and annexed it later in a move that has never been recognized internationally. Endit