Reports: Israel conducted airstrikes near Damascus
A news site linked to Syrian opposition forces claims the IAF bombed Hezbollah and Syrian army positions on Friday night, while Al-Jazeera says Russia conducted strikes in that area at the time.
Israeli Air Force planes launched two strikes on Hezbollah and Syrian army targets overnight Friday, according to social media accounts linked to the Syrian opposition.
According to the reports, which were not confirmed by Israel, the strikes occurred in al-Qalamoun in the suburbs of Damascus, an area that foreign media outlets on previous occasions claimed that Israel has bombed.
According to news site Syria Direct, associated with opposition forces, Israeli aircraft flew along the Lebanese border into Syrian airspace. The reliability of the report was not immediately clear.
Similar reports with slightly different accounts were posted on several social media accounts associated with opposition forces. A small number of accounts linked to the Syrian regime and Hezbollah claimed that an attack was launched from Lebanese territory using an air-to-surface missile.
Reports trickled out of Lebanon on Friday claiming that there was a heavy air force presence. The official Lebanese news agency reported that 14 fighter planes had penetrated Lebanese airspace by the afternoon. At around 11:30pm, Israeli fighter planes were reportedly observed flying low near the border between Syria and Lebanon.
No mainstream Arab-language media outlets have reported the alleged strikes, however. Al-Jazeera reported shortly after midnight Friday night that Russian military planes had conducted attacks in al-Qalamoun.
