Syria says IDF strikes on targets in Damascus and al-Kiswah

Air strikes were reported on Saturday night, September 17, targeting targets near Damascus airport and in the area of al-Kiswah south of the Syrian capital.

Damascus says the attacks were carried out by the Israeli air force.

Syrian Defence Ministry claims that Syria's air defences were able to shoot down most of the Israeli missiles, NEWSru.co.il reports citing Syrian media.

There are also reports of five dead soldiers and significant damage.

The London-based monitoring group The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) says two pro-Iranian militia fighters were killed in addition to Syrian soldiers.

This is the third attack attributed to Israel against targets inside Syria in the last two weeks.

Earlier this week, Israeli Defence Minister Beni Gantz, at The Jerusalem Post conference in New York, first showed satellite images showing more than a dozen Iranian advanced weapons production facilities, including at the Syrian Centre for Scientific Research (CERS) in Masyaf.

"According to Qassem Suleimani's plans, Iran was to use the CERS facilities to produce high-precision missiles, medium- and long-range weapons for Hizbullah and its other proxies. In other words, the science centre was turned into a factory for the production of advanced strategic weapons," Ganz said.