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Syria claims that Israeli jets carried out strike near Palmyra

Syrian state media reports that the country’s air defenses shot down missiles fired by Israeli jets • U.K.-based monitor group says strikes targeted Iranian facilities and Iran-backed fighters.

An explosions in the air over Damascus during what Syrian media claims was an Israeli strike on targets in the area, on Feb. 6, 2020. Credit: SANA.
An explosions in the air over Damascus during what Syrian media claims was an Israeli strike on targets in the area, on Feb. 6, 2020. Credit: SANA.

Syrian state media on Monday reported that the country’s air defenses had downed several missiles near the central town of Palmyra fired from Israeli fighter jets.

This is the third such attack reported in the past three weeks, according to the AP.

According to the U.K.-based monitory group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the strikes targeted Iranian facilities and Iran-backed fighters in the desert near Palmyra, in Homs Province. It said that the Israeli jets had entered Lebanese airspace.

The alleged attack comes soon after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was in Damascus meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad and his Syrian counterpart, according to the report.

Last week, an Israeli drone fired two missiles at a vehicle near the Syria-Lebanon border carrying a pair of Hezbollah members, according to a Hezbollah official. Neither of the Hezbollah members was wounded in the attack, the official said.

Speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity, the official said that one of the missiles detonated near the vehicle while the second hit after the driver abandoned it.

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