Syria’s Interior Ministry said Sunday it dismantled a cell it described as responsible for recent rocket and drone attacks targeting a neighborhood of Damascus, claiming the weapons used originated with Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
In a statement, the ministry said security forces carried out operations against a cell involved in several attacks in the Mazzeh area of the capital and near its military airport. Authorities said the cell was dismantled and its members arrested.
Security forces also seized several drones that had been prepared for use in future attacks, the statement said.
According to the ministry, initial interrogations of those detained indicated links to foreign entities and showed that the rockets, launch platforms and drones used in the attacks traced back to Hezbollah.
Lebanon and Syria share a roughly 330-kilometer (205-mile) border that has long been considered porous.
Hezbollah fought alongside the forces of former president Bashar Assad during Syria’s civil war and previously controlled areas along the Lebanese-Syrian border. Since Assad was ousted in December 2024 by a coalition of Islamist factions, Syrian authorities say Hezbollah’s supply routes have been cut and multiple attempts to smuggle weapons into Lebanon have been thwarted.
Last month, Syrian authorities said three rockets struck the Mazzeh neighborhood, with one damaging a mosque and another landing near the military airport. No casualties were reported.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said at the time that the mosque was located in an area where senior officials from the country’s new authorities reside.
In December, the state-run SANA news agency quoted a military source as saying three projectiles of unknown origin hit an area near the Mazzeh military airport without causing damage or injuries.
A month earlier, a woman was wounded when a rocket attack struck a home in the same neighborhood. SANA cited a military source as saying the attack was carried out using rockets fired from a mobile launcher.