DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – Syrian air defense forces have shot down 22 missiles fired by the Zionist regime into Syria late on Thursday, official Syrian news agency SANA reported.
SANA cited a Syrian military source as saying that the air raids came from the direction of Beirut, to the southeast targeting Damascus and Homs.
“Our air defense tools have intercepted the missiles and downed most of them, and the aggression’s impact is being assessed now,” the source said.
Lebanese media outlets had reported low-flying Zionist jets above Beirut.
Lebanon’s civilian aviation chief Fadi al-Hassan told Aljadeed TV that two flights heading towards Beirut were temporarily asked to change course because of the Zionist regime’s operation, but they eventually landed safely in the Lebanese capital.
Reporting the airstrikes late on Thursday, Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television network said Syria’s air defense units had intercepted “most of the incoming projectiles” fired during the raid.
There were no official reports of casualties; however, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which is close to Kurdish militants claimed that the missiles had targeted “arms depots and military positions” belonging to the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah in the Qarah area in the northwest of Damascus province, near Homs province and the Lebanese border.
The attacks started to grow significantly in scale and frequency after 2011, when Syria found itself in the grip of rampant foreign-backed militancy and terrorism.
Later in the day, the Syrian Foreign Ministry renewed its call on the United Nations and the Security Council to assume responsibilities based on the UN Charter and act firmly to prevent the recurrence of the occupying regime’s attacks on Syria’s territory.
Syria and the occupying regime are technically at war due to the regime’s occupation of the Arab country’s Golan Heights since 1967.
Lebanon lodged an official complaint with the UN Security Council (UNSC) following the Zionist regime’s airstrike on Syria from within its airspace, according to a government statement.
The Lebanese Foreign Ministry said the regime’s warplanes violated Lebanese airspace and flew at low altitudes over areas in southern Lebanon.
According to the statement, “a complaint has been sent through Lebanon’s representative to the UN, Ambassador Amal Mudallali, regarding the Israeli violations and called for the necessity of deterring Israel from committing these violations again.”
Lebanese Minister for Defense and Foreign Affairs Zeina Adra also condemned “the Israeli enemy’s blatant launching of missiles from Lebanese airspace and targeting sites in Syria at low altitudes.”
Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab said in a statement that “the Israeli enemy’s continued violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty constitutes a direct threat to the UN Resolution 1701.”