News / Syria

Syrian air defenses intercept missiles near Homs

Thursday, 24 May 2018 8:35 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 24 May 2018 8:38 PM ]

An image grab from a video released on May 10, 2018 by the media bureau of the Syrian army and broadcast on Syria's official TV shows Syrian air defense systems intercepting Israeli missiles. (Photo by AFP)

Syrian air defense systems have repelled a missile attack on an airport near the western city of Homs, less than a day after US-led coalition jets targeted several Syrian military positions in the country's eastern Dayr al-Zawr province.

"One of our military airports in the central region was exposed to a hostile missile attack, and our air defense systems confronted the attack and prevented it from achieving its aim," Syria’s official news agency, SANA, reported on Thursday night.

The news agency had earlier said that sounds of explosions were heard near Dabaa airport, which lies about 20 kilometers southwest of Homs near the Lebanese border.

There have been no immediate reports of possible casualties, but Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “six missiles” had targeted the Syrian military airport, which it said stationed fighters from popular defense groups allied with government forces.

"The missiles would have been fired by Israel," the so-called monitoring group added.

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Syria to repel Israeli attacks under any pretext: Envoy to Russia

AFP quoted a source close to the Lebanese-Syrian border as saying that warplanes had flown over Lebanese airspace and "some people are still expecting new strikes".

Earlier in the day, SANA reported that a number of Syrian military positions between Albu Kamal and Hmeimeh were hit “in an aggression by American coalition warplanes."

PressTV-US jets target Syrian military positions

US-led coalition warplanes target several Syrian military positions in the country's eastern Dayr al-Zawr province.

When asked about the Thursday night attack, Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Kone Faulkner claimed the strike was not carried out by US forces.

The attacks come amid reports of the full liberation of neighborhoods south of the Syrian capital Damascus from the clutches of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

Syrian army troops and pro-government fighters had been fighting since April 19 to recapture the area covering Yarmouk camp and the adjacent districts of Qadam, Tadamun and al-Hajar al-Aswad.

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